Dec. 22, 2012
(Daily Caller) - After the failed effort to get the fiscal cliff “Plan B” passed this week, some powerful conservatives on Capitol Hill are reportedly pushing for Wisconsin Republican Rep. Paul Ryan to replace embattled House Speaker John Boehner.
On Friday night’s “The O’Reilly Factor,” fill-in host Laura Ingraham said her sources indicate a coup may already be underway in Congress.
“I had a well-placed conservative voice today on the Hill email me and said he’s beginning to hear rumblings — I already gave something away, ‘he’ — he’s beginning to hear of a move to replace the speaker of the House,” Ingraham said. “We’re in the middle of this tussle with the Democrats, more than a tussle, and is that the right time to put that out there? And people are floating the name of Paul Ryan to be House speaker. But Ryan did support … Plan B.”
Saturday, December 22, 2012
446 school age children shot in Chicago . . .
Dec. 22, 2012
446 school age children shot in Chicago so far this year with strongest gun laws in country – media silent
The cesspool known as Chicago probably has the toughest gun laws in the country, yet despite all the shootings, murders, and bloodshed, you never hear a peep about this from the corrupt state run media. In Chicago, there have been 446 school age children shot in leftist utopia run by Rahm Emanuel and that produced Obama, Jesse Jackson, Louis Farrakhan, etc. 62 school aged children have actually been killed by crazed nuts in Chicago so far this year with almost two weeks to go. So why isn’t this news worthy? Is it because it would embarrass those anti second amendment nuts who brag about Chicago’s tough gun laws? Is it because most of the kids who were shot and killed were minorities? Or is it because the corrupt media doesn’t want to show Chicago in a bad light? Amazingly, no Obama crocodile tears either.
For those of you too dense to get the point of this post, it’s to make the point about gun laws. No matter how tough the gun laws are, the crazed, nut jobs will find a way to get them and if they so chose, use them. No draconian law can stop this, no matter how well intentioned the law is, or if it’s just about leftists grabbing power from citizens and taking away their constitutional rights.
THE LIST OF MURDERED SCHOOL AGE CHILDREN 2012
18 YEARS OLD- 15
17 YEARS OLD- 16
16 YEARS OLD- 16
15 YEARS OLD- 6
14 YEARS OLD- 4
13 YEARS OLD- 2
12 YEARS OLD- 1
7 YEARS OLD- 1
6 YEARS OLD- 1
446 School Age Children Shot in Chicago so Far This Year THE LIST OF SCHOOL AGE CHILDREN SHOT IN 2012
18 year old- 110
17 year old- 99
16 year old- 89
15 year old- 62
14 year old- 39
13 year old- 21
12 year old- 10
11 year old- 2
10 year old- 3
9 year old- 1
7 year old- 3
6 year old- 2
5 year old- 1
4 year old- 1
3 year old- 1
1 year old- 2
Hat tip: Retired Army
source
446 school age children shot in Chicago so far this year with strongest gun laws in country – media silent
The cesspool known as Chicago probably has the toughest gun laws in the country, yet despite all the shootings, murders, and bloodshed, you never hear a peep about this from the corrupt state run media. In Chicago, there have been 446 school age children shot in leftist utopia run by Rahm Emanuel and that produced Obama, Jesse Jackson, Louis Farrakhan, etc. 62 school aged children have actually been killed by crazed nuts in Chicago so far this year with almost two weeks to go. So why isn’t this news worthy? Is it because it would embarrass those anti second amendment nuts who brag about Chicago’s tough gun laws? Is it because most of the kids who were shot and killed were minorities? Or is it because the corrupt media doesn’t want to show Chicago in a bad light? Amazingly, no Obama crocodile tears either.
For those of you too dense to get the point of this post, it’s to make the point about gun laws. No matter how tough the gun laws are, the crazed, nut jobs will find a way to get them and if they so chose, use them. No draconian law can stop this, no matter how well intentioned the law is, or if it’s just about leftists grabbing power from citizens and taking away their constitutional rights.
THE LIST OF MURDERED SCHOOL AGE CHILDREN 2012
18 YEARS OLD- 15
17 YEARS OLD- 16
16 YEARS OLD- 16
15 YEARS OLD- 6
14 YEARS OLD- 4
13 YEARS OLD- 2
12 YEARS OLD- 1
7 YEARS OLD- 1
6 YEARS OLD- 1
446 School Age Children Shot in Chicago so Far This Year THE LIST OF SCHOOL AGE CHILDREN SHOT IN 2012
18 year old- 110
17 year old- 99
16 year old- 89
15 year old- 62
14 year old- 39
13 year old- 21
12 year old- 10
11 year old- 2
10 year old- 3
9 year old- 1
7 year old- 3
6 year old- 2
5 year old- 1
4 year old- 1
3 year old- 1
1 year old- 2
Hat tip: Retired Army
source
High Level Immaturity: Bureaucratic rivalries may have hampered Benghazi security: sources
Dec. 22, 2012
The Blame Game Continues in the Obama Administration...
(Reuters) - Infighting and bureaucratic jealousies between the State Department and the Pentagon may have played a role in lax security arrangements prior to the deadly attacks on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, congressional sources said.
Evidence of the bureaucratic rivalries, not previously reported, is contained in unpublished documents being studied by congressional investigators and is referred to in a classified version of a report on the attacks in Libya, which was turned over to Congress earlier this week, the sources said.
Two sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Reuters the friction between the Defense and State departments included, but was not limited to, the State Department's unease over its reliance on a 16-person Pentagon security unit, known as a Site Security Team (SST).
The team's mission was allowed to expire in August, and there are disputed accounts over whether it could have done a better job of protecting U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans who died in the September 11 Benghazi attacks.
Senator Bob Corker, a Tennessee Republican, alluded to the inter-agency tensions at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Thursday on the unclassified report by a State Department review board.
Corker, referring to the State Department's refusal to extend the Site Security Team's tenure in Libya, told two top State Department officials: "You had 16 people there free from the Defense Department."
The SST, he said, was funded from the Pentagon, rather than the State Department budget.
The State Department did not respond to a request made on Thursday for comment on the allegations of bureaucratic feuding.
One source familiar with the unpublished State Department material said it indicated that some officials in Washington felt it was "embarrassing" to rely on Pentagon assets for security in Libya. The documents show State officials believed money which went to the Pentagon for such operations should have been given to the State Department, the source said.
'GROSSLY INADEQUATE' SECURITY
The unclassified version of the State Department-appointed inquiry, known as an Accountability Review Board, released late on Tuesday, described security precautions at the U.S. mission in Benghazi as "grossly inadequate to deal with the attack that took place."
U.S. Embassy staff in the Libyan capital of Tripoli indicated their desire that the SST, comprised of Pentagon special-operations soldiers, remain on station beyond August, when it was scheduled to be withdrawn from the country, according to information which surfaced at a congressional hearing in October.
But a witness told Congress the State Department in Washington made clear such a request would not be granted.
After the Benghazi attacks, the Department argued publicly that because the team had operated almost exclusively in Tripoli, it not would have been much help in repelling the Benghazi attacks. It also said the team's withdrawal had no impact on the number of U.S. security personnel, because State Department Diplomatic Security personnel were deployed in its place.
But two congressional sources familiar with the issue said that one of the functions of the team had been to occasionally provide extra security for the U.S. Ambassador if he traveled outside of Tripoli.
Congressional investigators have been told that had the SST's assignment been extended, it almost certainly would have been involved in protecting Stevens when he made his September visit to Benghazi. One source said that according to the State Department report, there were plans for the team to guard Stevens on an earlier visit to Benghazi, which had been scheduled for the summer. That visit never took place.
QUESTIONS ON LIBYAN MILITIA
The classified version of the report, unlike the public version, also identifies militant factions whose members U.S. officials believe were implicated in the attacks, one of the sources said. Assailants targeted both the diplomatic mission and a nearby CIA base.
U.S. government sources said privately that within hours of the attacks, members of Ansar al Sharia, a Benghazi-based militia, and Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, al Qaeda's North African affiliate, were suspected of involvement.
U.S. lawmakers also are digging for more information on possible ties between the February 17 Martyrs Brigade, a Benghazi militia assigned to protect the U.S. diplomatic mission there, and Ansar al Sharia.
A congressional official said investigators were seeking to learn whether some February 17 members may have had advance warning from Ansar al Sharia about the impending attacks on the U.S. diplomatic compound, warnings which were not passed on to American officials. However, two officials said that so far no hard evidence of this has surfaced.
The unclassified State Department report hints at similar concerns. "Over the course of its inquiry, the Board also learned of troubling indicators of February 17's loyalties and its readiness to assist U.S. personnel," it said.
The Blame Game Continues in the Obama Administration...
(Reuters) - Infighting and bureaucratic jealousies between the State Department and the Pentagon may have played a role in lax security arrangements prior to the deadly attacks on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, congressional sources said.
Evidence of the bureaucratic rivalries, not previously reported, is contained in unpublished documents being studied by congressional investigators and is referred to in a classified version of a report on the attacks in Libya, which was turned over to Congress earlier this week, the sources said.
Two sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Reuters the friction between the Defense and State departments included, but was not limited to, the State Department's unease over its reliance on a 16-person Pentagon security unit, known as a Site Security Team (SST).
The team's mission was allowed to expire in August, and there are disputed accounts over whether it could have done a better job of protecting U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans who died in the September 11 Benghazi attacks.
Senator Bob Corker, a Tennessee Republican, alluded to the inter-agency tensions at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Thursday on the unclassified report by a State Department review board.
Corker, referring to the State Department's refusal to extend the Site Security Team's tenure in Libya, told two top State Department officials: "You had 16 people there free from the Defense Department."
The SST, he said, was funded from the Pentagon, rather than the State Department budget.
The State Department did not respond to a request made on Thursday for comment on the allegations of bureaucratic feuding.
One source familiar with the unpublished State Department material said it indicated that some officials in Washington felt it was "embarrassing" to rely on Pentagon assets for security in Libya. The documents show State officials believed money which went to the Pentagon for such operations should have been given to the State Department, the source said.
'GROSSLY INADEQUATE' SECURITY
The unclassified version of the State Department-appointed inquiry, known as an Accountability Review Board, released late on Tuesday, described security precautions at the U.S. mission in Benghazi as "grossly inadequate to deal with the attack that took place."
U.S. Embassy staff in the Libyan capital of Tripoli indicated their desire that the SST, comprised of Pentagon special-operations soldiers, remain on station beyond August, when it was scheduled to be withdrawn from the country, according to information which surfaced at a congressional hearing in October.
But a witness told Congress the State Department in Washington made clear such a request would not be granted.
After the Benghazi attacks, the Department argued publicly that because the team had operated almost exclusively in Tripoli, it not would have been much help in repelling the Benghazi attacks. It also said the team's withdrawal had no impact on the number of U.S. security personnel, because State Department Diplomatic Security personnel were deployed in its place.
But two congressional sources familiar with the issue said that one of the functions of the team had been to occasionally provide extra security for the U.S. Ambassador if he traveled outside of Tripoli.
Congressional investigators have been told that had the SST's assignment been extended, it almost certainly would have been involved in protecting Stevens when he made his September visit to Benghazi. One source said that according to the State Department report, there were plans for the team to guard Stevens on an earlier visit to Benghazi, which had been scheduled for the summer. That visit never took place.
QUESTIONS ON LIBYAN MILITIA
The classified version of the report, unlike the public version, also identifies militant factions whose members U.S. officials believe were implicated in the attacks, one of the sources said. Assailants targeted both the diplomatic mission and a nearby CIA base.
U.S. government sources said privately that within hours of the attacks, members of Ansar al Sharia, a Benghazi-based militia, and Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, al Qaeda's North African affiliate, were suspected of involvement.
U.S. lawmakers also are digging for more information on possible ties between the February 17 Martyrs Brigade, a Benghazi militia assigned to protect the U.S. diplomatic mission there, and Ansar al Sharia.
A congressional official said investigators were seeking to learn whether some February 17 members may have had advance warning from Ansar al Sharia about the impending attacks on the U.S. diplomatic compound, warnings which were not passed on to American officials. However, two officials said that so far no hard evidence of this has surfaced.
The unclassified State Department report hints at similar concerns. "Over the course of its inquiry, the Board also learned of troubling indicators of February 17's loyalties and its readiness to assist U.S. personnel," it said.
Mexico frees ex-Marine jailed for bringing in gun
Dec. 22, 2012
MIAMI (AP) — A Marine veteran jailed for months in Mexico after trying to carry a family heirloom shotgun across the border has been freed, U.S. officials and his lawyer said late Friday.
The attorney for 27-year-old Jon Hammar tweeted Friday night that his client had been released from a detention center in Matamoros, Mexico.
"Jon is out, going home!" Eddie Varon Levy tweeted.
Patrick Ventrell, the acting deputy spokesman for the State Department, confirmed Hammer's release and return to the U.S. in a statement Friday night.
"Officials from the U.S. Consulate General in Matamoros met him at the prison and escorted him to the U.S. border, where he was reunited with members of his family," the statement said. "We sincerely appreciate the efforts on the part of Mexican authorities to ensure that an appropriate resolution was made in accordance with Mexican law, and that Mr. Hammar will be free to spend the holidays with his loved ones."
An aide to a legal representative of the Mexican attorney general's office had told U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson's staff about the pending release after the Florida Democrat's office got word from Hammar's mother, according to a press release from Nelson's office.
"No American should be in a Mexican jail for five months without being able to have his case in front of a judge," Nelson said in that statement. "We're grateful; this is a good Christmas present."
Earlier Friday, Varon Levy said he was flying from Mexico City to Matamoros to pick up his client. After that, the attorney said, they intended to cross the border at Brownsville, Texas. "I'm very happy. I feel that the Mexican legal system came out the way it should have," he said.
U.S. immigration and State Department officials had been at the Mexican detention center waiting for Hammar's release.
A defense lawyer said Mexican authorities determined there was no intent to commit a crime, Nelson's office said. The senator was among a handful of elected officials who urged the State Department to help get Hammar out of Mexico. His family had said he was being held in isolation after threats to his safety were received.
"These past few months have been an absolute nightmare for Jon and his family, and I am so relieved that this whole ordeal will soon be over," said U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., in a statement. " I am overcome with joy knowing that Jon will be spending Christmas with his parents, family and friends."
The attorney, Varon Levy, said the path for Hammar's return was cleared when Mexican officials decided not to appeal the judge's ruling.
Civilian gun ownership is illegal under Mexican law unless the owner purchases the weapon from a special shop run by the country's Department of Defense.
"The Department of State warns all U.S. citizens against taking any type of firearm or ammunition into Mexico," the U.S. Embassy in Mexico writes on its website. "Entering Mexico with a firearm, certain types of knives, or even a single round of ammunition is illegal, even if the weapon or ammunition is taken into Mexico unintentionally."
Mexican law also bans shotguns with barrels of less than 25 inches. The family said Hammar's shotgun has a barrel of 24 inches.
Tourists are allowed to bring guns for hunting on rare occasions, but Mexican officials said all visitors must receive a special permit before entering the country. Mexican customs agents do not issue gun permits. As a result, anyone crossing the border with a firearm or ammunition without a previously issued government permit is in instant violation of Mexican law, which stipulates long jail terms for breaking weapons laws.
Hammar and his friend were on their way to Costa Rica in August and planned to drive across the Mexican border near Matamoros in a Winnebago filled with surfboards and camping gear. Hammar asked U.S. border agents what to do with the unloaded shotgun. His family said agents told them to fill out a form for the gun, which belonged to Hammar's great-grandfather.
But when the pair crossed the border and handed the paperwork to Mexican officials, they impounded the RV and jailed the men, saying it was illegal to carry that type of gun. Hammar's friend was later released because the gun did not belong to him.
Before Hammar's release, Varon Levy said he was not sure of his client's immediate plans upon being freed. "Probably some down time," he said.
MIAMI (AP) — A Marine veteran jailed for months in Mexico after trying to carry a family heirloom shotgun across the border has been freed, U.S. officials and his lawyer said late Friday.
The attorney for 27-year-old Jon Hammar tweeted Friday night that his client had been released from a detention center in Matamoros, Mexico.
"Jon is out, going home!" Eddie Varon Levy tweeted.
Patrick Ventrell, the acting deputy spokesman for the State Department, confirmed Hammer's release and return to the U.S. in a statement Friday night.
"Officials from the U.S. Consulate General in Matamoros met him at the prison and escorted him to the U.S. border, where he was reunited with members of his family," the statement said. "We sincerely appreciate the efforts on the part of Mexican authorities to ensure that an appropriate resolution was made in accordance with Mexican law, and that Mr. Hammar will be free to spend the holidays with his loved ones."
An aide to a legal representative of the Mexican attorney general's office had told U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson's staff about the pending release after the Florida Democrat's office got word from Hammar's mother, according to a press release from Nelson's office.
"No American should be in a Mexican jail for five months without being able to have his case in front of a judge," Nelson said in that statement. "We're grateful; this is a good Christmas present."
Earlier Friday, Varon Levy said he was flying from Mexico City to Matamoros to pick up his client. After that, the attorney said, they intended to cross the border at Brownsville, Texas. "I'm very happy. I feel that the Mexican legal system came out the way it should have," he said.
U.S. immigration and State Department officials had been at the Mexican detention center waiting for Hammar's release.
A defense lawyer said Mexican authorities determined there was no intent to commit a crime, Nelson's office said. The senator was among a handful of elected officials who urged the State Department to help get Hammar out of Mexico. His family had said he was being held in isolation after threats to his safety were received.
"These past few months have been an absolute nightmare for Jon and his family, and I am so relieved that this whole ordeal will soon be over," said U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., in a statement. " I am overcome with joy knowing that Jon will be spending Christmas with his parents, family and friends."
The attorney, Varon Levy, said the path for Hammar's return was cleared when Mexican officials decided not to appeal the judge's ruling.
Civilian gun ownership is illegal under Mexican law unless the owner purchases the weapon from a special shop run by the country's Department of Defense.
"The Department of State warns all U.S. citizens against taking any type of firearm or ammunition into Mexico," the U.S. Embassy in Mexico writes on its website. "Entering Mexico with a firearm, certain types of knives, or even a single round of ammunition is illegal, even if the weapon or ammunition is taken into Mexico unintentionally."
Mexican law also bans shotguns with barrels of less than 25 inches. The family said Hammar's shotgun has a barrel of 24 inches.
Tourists are allowed to bring guns for hunting on rare occasions, but Mexican officials said all visitors must receive a special permit before entering the country. Mexican customs agents do not issue gun permits. As a result, anyone crossing the border with a firearm or ammunition without a previously issued government permit is in instant violation of Mexican law, which stipulates long jail terms for breaking weapons laws.
Hammar and his friend were on their way to Costa Rica in August and planned to drive across the Mexican border near Matamoros in a Winnebago filled with surfboards and camping gear. Hammar asked U.S. border agents what to do with the unloaded shotgun. His family said agents told them to fill out a form for the gun, which belonged to Hammar's great-grandfather.
But when the pair crossed the border and handed the paperwork to Mexican officials, they impounded the RV and jailed the men, saying it was illegal to carry that type of gun. Hammar's friend was later released because the gun did not belong to him.
Before Hammar's release, Varon Levy said he was not sure of his client's immediate plans upon being freed. "Probably some down time," he said.
Friday, December 21, 2012
Media & Politicians Stir Up Frenzy But Won’t Report Educational “Child Find” Law That Could Have Prevented Newtown, CT Massacre
Dec. 21, 2012
By: LM & AJ (Dec 20th, 2012) - In light of the recent massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, we learn today that, “The Newtown school gunman’s mother was so angry at education chiefs for failing her son, she thought ‘screw them’ and refused to stop dealing with them anymore, a relative has claimed. Nancy Lanza pleaded for better services for her disturbed son Adam, but was apparently rebuffed so many times, she took it upon herself to home school him.”
One can imagine there isn’t a Special Education Director who isn’t wondering if they could do more to identify students with mental health disorders. In fact, there are some who know they can do more – *and the law requires them to do it. However, the administrative apparatus of the public school system is managed in a way that restricts access to the supports and services needed by children with mental illness or disabilities.
Too often, pressure from school Superintendents require Special Education Directors to reduce their budgets, thus leaving Directors no choice but to purposely deny eligibility, interventions, appropriate services and/or supports to children who need them. In essence, school districts claim these children are fine or they’re “cured” because they really don’t need interventions or services despite clear warning signs that something’s very wrong.
Adam Lanza was no exception. Educational professionals report they saw Adam Lanza’s problems as early as 9th grade. At Newtown High School, he was often having episodes and the protocol used by the school was to call his mother, Nancy Lanza, and have her come in to diffuse each crisis.
The head of security for the school district at the time, Richard Novia, told AP reporter Adam Geller, “He would have an episode and she’d have to return or come to the high school and deal with it.”
While Nancy Lanza suffered in silence and rarely spoke of the seriousness of Adam’s problems, the indicators of her son’s severe mental illness were there. Nancy Lanza’s friends knew Adam had switched schools more than once and that Nancy tried home schooling him.
John Tambascio said, “I always said that I wouldn’t want to be in her shoes. But I thought, “Wow. She holds it well.”” Russell Hanoman said Adam was “clearly a troubled child.” Ryan Kraft, who babysat Adam when he was younger, said, “His mom Nancy had always instructed me to keep an eye on him at all times, never turn my back or even go to the bathroom or anything like that. Which I found odd, but I really didn’t ask; it wasn’t any of my business.”
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) includes a legal mandate requiring school districts, under the “Child Find” provision, to seek out and find children who exhibit significant problems at school, to include developmental and functional problems; not just academic problems. Most parents aren’t aware of this and the media and politicians won’t tell you about it, but all school districts know.
Under IDEA, anyone concerned about an individual can refer the student, confidentially, to the school district for assessment.
Usually, it is a teacher who refers a student for assessment. Unfortunately, due to the nationwide “budget constraint” mantra from the educational system, we are told that teachers are discouraged by their districts in the referral of students with suspected disorders and that “it’s a big waste of time as districts take no forward motion” according to one teacher who has asked to remain anonymous.
Did Lanza’s school district follow the Child Find law? Did they refer him for a psycho-educational assessment and provide the interventions and services needed? As we now know, they did not.
You may wonder, “Why at school?” Children with mental illness or disabilities experience the majority of their difficulties within and because of school. The random, unpredictable and social dynamics and demands of all school campuses generally intensify the manifestations of a child’s disorder.
Their inability to properly navigate the school environment is the first warning sign that, without proper interventions and supports, they will be unable to navigate in the real world when they reach adulthood.
Unfortunately for parents, their distraught and possibly violent child is often denied an assessment by the school district or, if given an assessment, they’re denied Special Education eligibility and/or appropriate supports and services, especially if the child is demonstrating “adequate academic progress.” Parents are often pleading and begging for help from the school.
This is where school districts misinterpret the law. Clearly, IDEA legislation requires that students who demonstrate issues of functional, social, and/or emotional development are to be assessed and the needed interventions, supports and services must be provided.
If Adam Lanza’s school district had followed the law, they would have requested Nancy Lanza’s consent to conduct a psycho-educational assessment in all areas of suspected disability, which includes mental health, in order to get to the bottom of his mental illness, thus enabling them to determine the interventions and services he needed (to include institutionalization if necessary). In addition, he would have been closely monitored via an Individualized Education Plan (IEP).
Adam Lanza’s problems were no secret; his brother told reporters that Adam suffered from a “personality disorder” (the clinical term is usually “sociopath” or “psychopath”). Adam Lanza’s mental illness was evident and Nancy Lanza’s problems with the school district have been reported.
Ask yourself… could things have been different if the school district had followed the law just a few short years ago? Would it have revealed the severity of his mental illness? Would interventions have been provided that may have prevented the murder of 27 innocents? We’ll never know the real answer to that question now.
But we do know his mother, Nancy Lanza, suffered in silence, was murdered by her son and friends and educators knew something was seriously wrong with Adam Lanza.
Often, when a parent is struggling at home with a child who has a mental illness or disability, they are completely overwhelmed and very few can understand this unless they walk in the parent’s shoes. More often than not, parents are not aware of the laws and provisions of IDEA and rarely do they have the energy or resources to fight the educational apparatus’ complex, bureaucratic and lengthy legal process. Not all school districts create barriers such as what is described in this article, but the problem is that the vast majority do.
Like Nancy Lanza, many parents end up pulling their children out of school and implementing a home school program. Consequently, removed from the social world, the child’s problems may appear to diminish somewhat… but those problems re-emerge when they are adults and attempt to re-enter mainstream society.
Did you know that twelve children commit suicide every day in the US? Everyday. One must ask what educators knew and what they did or didn’t do while those children were in their care.
Adam Lanza became an evil killer and educators saw signs of trouble as early as the 9th grade. One must ask what educators knew and what they did or didn’t do while he was in their care.
For parents of children with autism, it’s important to correct the media’s unsubstantiated reference to Asperger’s Syndrome with regard to Adam Lanza. Although Adam Lanza’s brother said “somewhat autistic,” if reporters had done their due diligence, they would have learned that an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is not a mental illness and it was not in any way related to what Adam Lanza did.
Autism Society: No Link Between Autism and Planned Violence
-> No evidence exists to link autism and premeditated violence. Suggesting otherwise is wrong and harmful to the more than 1.5 million individuals living with autism in the United States. 1
-> Individuals with autism and those with other disabilities are more likely to be victims of violence than the perpetrators. 2
-> Many of the individuals with Asperger’s syndrome who have committed crimes had co-existing psychiatric disorders. 3
1. Gunasekaran, S., & Chaplin, E. (2012). Autism spectrum disorders and offending. Advances in Mental Health and Intellectual Disabilities, 6, 308-313.
2. Hughes, K., Bellis, M. A., Jones, L., Wood, S., Bates, G., Eckley, L., … & Officer, A. (2012). Prevalence and risk of violence against adults with disabilities: a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies. The Lancet. 379, 1621-1629.
3. Newman SS, Ghaziuddin M: Violent crime in Asperger syndrome: the role of psychiatric comorbidity. J Autism Dev Disord 39:1949-52, 2008.
The media has yet to discuss the real issue regarding Adam Lanza, the failure of the educational system and what might have prevented the massacre of 27 innocent people in Newtown, CT.
Did his school district follow the law and provide the appropriate interventions, supports and services that he needed while he was young, which could have prevented him from becoming an evil killer that took so many innocent lives on December 14th?
President Obama said that he will put funding toward a solution. Well, here it is Mr. President. Clear evidence of what can be, and should have been, done. These laws are already mandated; they’re on the books. The job of the Executive Branch is to enforce the laws of the land that are enacted by Congress, so that’s what the American people have hired you to do. Enforce the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
—————-
*Excerpts of IDEA Legislation:
Child Find System – Sec. 303.321 – IDEA requires all states to have a “comprehensive Child Find system” to assure that all children who are in need of early intervention or special education services are located, identified, and referred.
Sec. 300.320 Definition of individualized education program.
(a) General. As used in this part, the term individualized education program or IEP means a written statement for each child with a disability that is developed, reviewed, and revised in a meeting in accordance with Sec. Sec. 300.320 through 300.324, and that must include–
(1) A statement of the child’s present levels of academic achievement and functional performance, including–
(i) How the child’s disability affects the child’s involvement and progress in the general education curriculum (i.e., the same curriculum as for nondisabled children); or
(ii) For preschool children, as appropriate, how the disability affects the child’s participation in appropriate activities;
Case law has further clarified the specific parameters of functional, social, and emotional progress. An example of this is Acalanes vs. Student in California .
About the authors: We are parents of children with disabilities and have collectively advocated for the needs of children with disabilities for twenty years. LM is currently a paralegal involved in litigation against the CA Department of Education. This litigation, which was filed one year ago, alleges the State’s failure to appropriately monitor how individual school districts provide supports and services to children with special needs. AJ is currently working as a special needs consultant and has served on various autism-related, non-profit boards. AJ has been very involved in legislative change regarding how children with disabilities are provided services and spearheaded the creation of pilot classrooms for school districts to help them meet the educational needs of children with autism.
Hat tip: Teresa @ Noisy Room
One can imagine there isn’t a Special Education Director who isn’t wondering if they could do more to identify students with mental health disorders. In fact, there are some who know they can do more – *and the law requires them to do it. However, the administrative apparatus of the public school system is managed in a way that restricts access to the supports and services needed by children with mental illness or disabilities.
Too often, pressure from school Superintendents require Special Education Directors to reduce their budgets, thus leaving Directors no choice but to purposely deny eligibility, interventions, appropriate services and/or supports to children who need them. In essence, school districts claim these children are fine or they’re “cured” because they really don’t need interventions or services despite clear warning signs that something’s very wrong.
Adam Lanza was no exception. Educational professionals report they saw Adam Lanza’s problems as early as 9th grade. At Newtown High School, he was often having episodes and the protocol used by the school was to call his mother, Nancy Lanza, and have her come in to diffuse each crisis.
The head of security for the school district at the time, Richard Novia, told AP reporter Adam Geller, “He would have an episode and she’d have to return or come to the high school and deal with it.”
While Nancy Lanza suffered in silence and rarely spoke of the seriousness of Adam’s problems, the indicators of her son’s severe mental illness were there. Nancy Lanza’s friends knew Adam had switched schools more than once and that Nancy tried home schooling him.
John Tambascio said, “I always said that I wouldn’t want to be in her shoes. But I thought, “Wow. She holds it well.”” Russell Hanoman said Adam was “clearly a troubled child.” Ryan Kraft, who babysat Adam when he was younger, said, “His mom Nancy had always instructed me to keep an eye on him at all times, never turn my back or even go to the bathroom or anything like that. Which I found odd, but I really didn’t ask; it wasn’t any of my business.”
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) includes a legal mandate requiring school districts, under the “Child Find” provision, to seek out and find children who exhibit significant problems at school, to include developmental and functional problems; not just academic problems. Most parents aren’t aware of this and the media and politicians won’t tell you about it, but all school districts know.
Under IDEA, anyone concerned about an individual can refer the student, confidentially, to the school district for assessment.
Usually, it is a teacher who refers a student for assessment. Unfortunately, due to the nationwide “budget constraint” mantra from the educational system, we are told that teachers are discouraged by their districts in the referral of students with suspected disorders and that “it’s a big waste of time as districts take no forward motion” according to one teacher who has asked to remain anonymous.
Did Lanza’s school district follow the Child Find law? Did they refer him for a psycho-educational assessment and provide the interventions and services needed? As we now know, they did not.
You may wonder, “Why at school?” Children with mental illness or disabilities experience the majority of their difficulties within and because of school. The random, unpredictable and social dynamics and demands of all school campuses generally intensify the manifestations of a child’s disorder.
Their inability to properly navigate the school environment is the first warning sign that, without proper interventions and supports, they will be unable to navigate in the real world when they reach adulthood.
Unfortunately for parents, their distraught and possibly violent child is often denied an assessment by the school district or, if given an assessment, they’re denied Special Education eligibility and/or appropriate supports and services, especially if the child is demonstrating “adequate academic progress.” Parents are often pleading and begging for help from the school.
This is where school districts misinterpret the law. Clearly, IDEA legislation requires that students who demonstrate issues of functional, social, and/or emotional development are to be assessed and the needed interventions, supports and services must be provided.
If Adam Lanza’s school district had followed the law, they would have requested Nancy Lanza’s consent to conduct a psycho-educational assessment in all areas of suspected disability, which includes mental health, in order to get to the bottom of his mental illness, thus enabling them to determine the interventions and services he needed (to include institutionalization if necessary). In addition, he would have been closely monitored via an Individualized Education Plan (IEP).
Adam Lanza’s problems were no secret; his brother told reporters that Adam suffered from a “personality disorder” (the clinical term is usually “sociopath” or “psychopath”). Adam Lanza’s mental illness was evident and Nancy Lanza’s problems with the school district have been reported.
Ask yourself… could things have been different if the school district had followed the law just a few short years ago? Would it have revealed the severity of his mental illness? Would interventions have been provided that may have prevented the murder of 27 innocents? We’ll never know the real answer to that question now.
But we do know his mother, Nancy Lanza, suffered in silence, was murdered by her son and friends and educators knew something was seriously wrong with Adam Lanza.
Often, when a parent is struggling at home with a child who has a mental illness or disability, they are completely overwhelmed and very few can understand this unless they walk in the parent’s shoes. More often than not, parents are not aware of the laws and provisions of IDEA and rarely do they have the energy or resources to fight the educational apparatus’ complex, bureaucratic and lengthy legal process. Not all school districts create barriers such as what is described in this article, but the problem is that the vast majority do.
Like Nancy Lanza, many parents end up pulling their children out of school and implementing a home school program. Consequently, removed from the social world, the child’s problems may appear to diminish somewhat… but those problems re-emerge when they are adults and attempt to re-enter mainstream society.
Did you know that twelve children commit suicide every day in the US? Everyday. One must ask what educators knew and what they did or didn’t do while those children were in their care.
Adam Lanza became an evil killer and educators saw signs of trouble as early as the 9th grade. One must ask what educators knew and what they did or didn’t do while he was in their care.
For parents of children with autism, it’s important to correct the media’s unsubstantiated reference to Asperger’s Syndrome with regard to Adam Lanza. Although Adam Lanza’s brother said “somewhat autistic,” if reporters had done their due diligence, they would have learned that an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is not a mental illness and it was not in any way related to what Adam Lanza did.
Autism Society: No Link Between Autism and Planned Violence
-> No evidence exists to link autism and premeditated violence. Suggesting otherwise is wrong and harmful to the more than 1.5 million individuals living with autism in the United States. 1
-> Individuals with autism and those with other disabilities are more likely to be victims of violence than the perpetrators. 2
-> Many of the individuals with Asperger’s syndrome who have committed crimes had co-existing psychiatric disorders. 3
1. Gunasekaran, S., & Chaplin, E. (2012). Autism spectrum disorders and offending. Advances in Mental Health and Intellectual Disabilities, 6, 308-313.
2. Hughes, K., Bellis, M. A., Jones, L., Wood, S., Bates, G., Eckley, L., … & Officer, A. (2012). Prevalence and risk of violence against adults with disabilities: a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies. The Lancet. 379, 1621-1629.
3. Newman SS, Ghaziuddin M: Violent crime in Asperger syndrome: the role of psychiatric comorbidity. J Autism Dev Disord 39:1949-52, 2008.
The media has yet to discuss the real issue regarding Adam Lanza, the failure of the educational system and what might have prevented the massacre of 27 innocent people in Newtown, CT.
Did his school district follow the law and provide the appropriate interventions, supports and services that he needed while he was young, which could have prevented him from becoming an evil killer that took so many innocent lives on December 14th?
President Obama said that he will put funding toward a solution. Well, here it is Mr. President. Clear evidence of what can be, and should have been, done. These laws are already mandated; they’re on the books. The job of the Executive Branch is to enforce the laws of the land that are enacted by Congress, so that’s what the American people have hired you to do. Enforce the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
—————-
*Excerpts of IDEA Legislation:
Child Find System – Sec. 303.321 – IDEA requires all states to have a “comprehensive Child Find system” to assure that all children who are in need of early intervention or special education services are located, identified, and referred.
Sec. 300.320 Definition of individualized education program.
(a) General. As used in this part, the term individualized education program or IEP means a written statement for each child with a disability that is developed, reviewed, and revised in a meeting in accordance with Sec. Sec. 300.320 through 300.324, and that must include–
(1) A statement of the child’s present levels of academic achievement and functional performance, including–
(i) How the child’s disability affects the child’s involvement and progress in the general education curriculum (i.e., the same curriculum as for nondisabled children); or
(ii) For preschool children, as appropriate, how the disability affects the child’s participation in appropriate activities;
Case law has further clarified the specific parameters of functional, social, and emotional progress. An example of this is Acalanes vs. Student in California .
About the authors: We are parents of children with disabilities and have collectively advocated for the needs of children with disabilities for twenty years. LM is currently a paralegal involved in litigation against the CA Department of Education. This litigation, which was filed one year ago, alleges the State’s failure to appropriately monitor how individual school districts provide supports and services to children with special needs. AJ is currently working as a special needs consultant and has served on various autism-related, non-profit boards. AJ has been very involved in legislative change regarding how children with disabilities are provided services and spearheaded the creation of pilot classrooms for school districts to help them meet the educational needs of children with autism.
Hat tip: Teresa @ Noisy Room
A Challenge to All Liberals, Progressives, and RINOs, Who STILL Believe Obama is NOT a Communist
Dec. 21, 2012
by Trevor on December 20, 2012 – 2:07 am EST
(New Zeal)- If, after more than four years of Obamunism, you sincerely believe that the man is NOT a communist or in bed with the communists, I offer you this challenge.
Click the blue link to our KeyWiki page on Barack Obama and the Communist Party. Read it right through.
Then you can check out his ties to two other anti-American Marxist groups Democratic Socialists of America and the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism.
If you can then rationally tell me why I am wrong in my conclusion that Obama is a long time ally of the Communists, I will do two things:
(A) Refrain from mentioning Obama’s ties to the Communists on this blog ever again.
(B) Withdraw my book Barack Obama, and the Enemies Within from the market immediately and permanently.
I’m waiting…
Trevor Loudon
(New Zeal)- If, after more than four years of Obamunism, you sincerely believe that the man is NOT a communist or in bed with the communists, I offer you this challenge.
Click the blue link to our KeyWiki page on Barack Obama and the Communist Party. Read it right through.
Then you can check out his ties to two other anti-American Marxist groups Democratic Socialists of America and the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism.
If you can then rationally tell me why I am wrong in my conclusion that Obama is a long time ally of the Communists, I will do two things:
(A) Refrain from mentioning Obama’s ties to the Communists on this blog ever again.
(B) Withdraw my book Barack Obama, and the Enemies Within from the market immediately and permanently.
I’m waiting…
Trevor Loudon
Russia has flat income tax rate of 13%
Dec. 21, 2012
NY Daily News
Vladimir Putin offers Gerard Depardieu a Russian passport in actor's efforts to escape French taxes
Depardieu had reportedly told his close friends he was considering three options to escape France's new tax regime: moving to Belgium, where he owns a home, relocating to Montenegro, where he has a business, or fleeing to Russia.
REUTERS
Thursday, December 20, 2012, 1:30 PM
President Vladimir Putin offered French actor Gerard Depardieu a Russian passport on Thursday, saying he would welcome the 63-year-old celebrity who is embroiled in a bitter tax row with France's socialist government.
Weighing into a dispute over a hike in taxes, Putin heaped praise on Depardieu, making the offer of citizenship in response to a question during his annual televised press conference.
"If Gerard really wants to have either a residency permit in Russia or a Russian passport, we will assume that this matter is settled and settled positively," Putin said.
French daily Le Monde reported on Tuesday that Depardieu had told his close friends he was considering three options to escape France's new tax regime: moving to Belgium, where he owns a home, relocating to Montenegro, where he has a business, or fleeing to Russia.
"Putin has already sent me a passport," Le Monde quoted the actor as jokingly saying.
Depardieu is well-known in Russia where he has appeared in many advertising campaigns, and in 2012 he was one of several Western celebrities invited to celebrate the birthday of Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechnya's Kremlin-backed leader.
He also worked in Russia last year on a film about the life and times of the eccentric Russian monk Grigory Rasputin.
He has already inquired about how to obtain Belgian residency rights and said he plans to hand in his French passport and social security card.
In what has become an ugly public dispute, France's Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault criticized Depardieu's announcement as "pathetic" and unpatriotic. The actor hit back, accusing France of punishing success and talent.
But Putin said he thought the feud was the result of a "misunderstanding".
The 60-year-old former KGB spy said he was very friendly with Depardieu, saying he thought the actor considered himself a Frenchman who loved the culture and history of his homeland.
Belgian residents do not pay a wealth tax, which in France is now levied on those with assets over 1.3 million euros ($1.7 million). Nor do they pay capital gains tax on share sales.
Hollande is also pressing ahead with plans to impose a 75-percent super tax on income over 1 million euros.
Russia has a flat income tax rate of 13 percent.
NY Daily News
Vladimir Putin offers Gerard Depardieu a Russian passport in actor's efforts to escape French taxes
Depardieu had reportedly told his close friends he was considering three options to escape France's new tax regime: moving to Belgium, where he owns a home, relocating to Montenegro, where he has a business, or fleeing to Russia.
REUTERS
Thursday, December 20, 2012, 1:30 PM
 |
| Gerard Depardieu is well-known in Russia where he has appeared in many advertising campaigns. |
Weighing into a dispute over a hike in taxes, Putin heaped praise on Depardieu, making the offer of citizenship in response to a question during his annual televised press conference.
"If Gerard really wants to have either a residency permit in Russia or a Russian passport, we will assume that this matter is settled and settled positively," Putin said.
French daily Le Monde reported on Tuesday that Depardieu had told his close friends he was considering three options to escape France's new tax regime: moving to Belgium, where he owns a home, relocating to Montenegro, where he has a business, or fleeing to Russia.
"Putin has already sent me a passport," Le Monde quoted the actor as jokingly saying.
Depardieu is well-known in Russia where he has appeared in many advertising campaigns, and in 2012 he was one of several Western celebrities invited to celebrate the birthday of Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechnya's Kremlin-backed leader.
He also worked in Russia last year on a film about the life and times of the eccentric Russian monk Grigory Rasputin.
He has already inquired about how to obtain Belgian residency rights and said he plans to hand in his French passport and social security card.
In what has become an ugly public dispute, France's Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault criticized Depardieu's announcement as "pathetic" and unpatriotic. The actor hit back, accusing France of punishing success and talent.
But Putin said he thought the feud was the result of a "misunderstanding".
The 60-year-old former KGB spy said he was very friendly with Depardieu, saying he thought the actor considered himself a Frenchman who loved the culture and history of his homeland.
Belgian residents do not pay a wealth tax, which in France is now levied on those with assets over 1.3 million euros ($1.7 million). Nor do they pay capital gains tax on share sales.
Hollande is also pressing ahead with plans to impose a 75-percent super tax on income over 1 million euros.
Russia has a flat income tax rate of 13 percent.
Dutch impound Steve Jobs superyacht over unpaid bill
12.21.12
 |
| The yacht ordered by Apple's late founder Steve Jobs and designed by French Philippe Starck's Ubik company at the De Vries shipyard in Aalsmeer on October 29, 2012. Steve Jobs' Dutch-built superyacht has been impounded in Amsterdam because of a dispute between the late Apple founder's estate and designer Philippe Starck over an unpaid bill, a Starck lawyer said Friday. AFP - Steve Jobs' Dutch-built superyacht has been impounded in Amsterdam because of a dispute between the late Apple founder's estate and designer Philippe Starck over an unpaid bill, a Starck lawyer said Friday. "The yacht has been impounded," Rotterdam-based lawyer Roelant Klaassen, who represents French designer Starck's Ubik company, told AFP. "There is some unfinished business, namely two invoices which were issued by Ubik last summer after Mr Jobs died," he said. Amsterdam court bailiffs seized the 70-metre (230-foot) long yacht following a request from Starck's lawyer. The Venus reportedly cost over 100 million euros ($130 million) to build and was only unveiled in October, just over a year after Jobs died. Jobs' estate says Starck should be paid a percentage of the overall cost of the project, which took over five years to complete, while Starck says he should be paid a fixed nine million euros for his contribution, Klaassen said. Klaassen said he was in contact with a Dutch lawyer representing the Jobs estate, Gerard Moussault. "Hopefully we will come to an interim agreement with regard to security," Klaassen said. Moussault declined to comment on the matter when contacted by AFP. Jobs' family, including widow Laurene Powell Jobs and their three children Reed, Erin and Eve, was supposed to take charge of the yacht in the United States. Klaassen said he had seen documents that show Jobs and Starck were "very close in the period that the design was made and the building proceeded". "That's one of the reasons there was no formal agreement on the job," he said. "The most important thing for everyone is that the vessel can sail at a certain moment and hopefully funds will be paid into the account of the lawyers of the estate which can then be used as security," Klaassen said. "Apparently the vessel will be loaded on another vessel to be shipped to the States, I think to California." The aluminium-hulled yacht was built by Royal De Vries shipbuilder's in Aalsmeer, just south of Amsterdam, with interiors designed by Starck. The bridge features a control panel made up of an array of seven iMac computers. Starck said last year that he was working on the yacht, which was mentioned in Walter Isaacson's biography of Jobs, who died on October 5, 2011. He said it was "sleek and minimalist", with teak decks. |
Nut Ball Leftists: Must Santa lose weight? Not if he's active
12.21.12
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (UPI) -- This time of year, Santa Claus is often criticized for being chubby and plump, but a U.S. nutrition professor says weight is just one risk factor to monitor.
"Would the world really be a better place with a thin Santa Claus?" Beth Kitchin, an assistant professor of nutrition sciences at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, said on her health and wellness blog, the Kitchin Sink. "Studies show that fitness level is an important measure of someone's health, not just weight, so maybe a few extra pounds on a treasured icon aren't such a bad thing."
Other health markers Santa needs to achieve to maintain good health regardless of weight include: appropriate blood pressure and blood sugar levels, low cholesterol and blood triglycerides.
"There is evidence that older people often do better with a little extra weight," Kitchin said. "We know that Santa gets plenty of exercise on Christmas Eve, but he needs to be walking or snowshoeing at least 30 minutes on most days of the week as well."
Assuming Santa eats properly and takes care of himself, there's no reason he can't carry a few extra pounds, Kitchin said in her blog.
However, Kitchin suggested healthier Santa snacking including:
-- Cookie control. No more than one or two Oreos -- 50 calories each.
-- Drink skim or 1 percent milk. Milk is loaded with protein, potassium and calcium, a glass could help lower Santa's chances of breaking a bone in case of a hard landing.
-- Think Mediterranean diet, which is packed with healthy plant fats such as olives, nuts, seeds and olive oil.
-- Add fruit and veggies. Provide Santa with carrot sticks with ranch dressing, banana or apples with peanut butter.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (UPI) -- This time of year, Santa Claus is often criticized for being chubby and plump, but a U.S. nutrition professor says weight is just one risk factor to monitor.
"Would the world really be a better place with a thin Santa Claus?" Beth Kitchin, an assistant professor of nutrition sciences at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, said on her health and wellness blog, the Kitchin Sink. "Studies show that fitness level is an important measure of someone's health, not just weight, so maybe a few extra pounds on a treasured icon aren't such a bad thing."
Other health markers Santa needs to achieve to maintain good health regardless of weight include: appropriate blood pressure and blood sugar levels, low cholesterol and blood triglycerides.
"There is evidence that older people often do better with a little extra weight," Kitchin said. "We know that Santa gets plenty of exercise on Christmas Eve, but he needs to be walking or snowshoeing at least 30 minutes on most days of the week as well."
Assuming Santa eats properly and takes care of himself, there's no reason he can't carry a few extra pounds, Kitchin said in her blog.
However, Kitchin suggested healthier Santa snacking including:
-- Cookie control. No more than one or two Oreos -- 50 calories each.
-- Drink skim or 1 percent milk. Milk is loaded with protein, potassium and calcium, a glass could help lower Santa's chances of breaking a bone in case of a hard landing.
-- Think Mediterranean diet, which is packed with healthy plant fats such as olives, nuts, seeds and olive oil.
-- Add fruit and veggies. Provide Santa with carrot sticks with ranch dressing, banana or apples with peanut butter.
Congresswoman broke ethics rules, House panel says
Dec. 21, 2012
LAS VEGAS | Fri Dec 21, 2012 2:26am EST
(Reuters) - A seven-term U.S. congresswoman from Nevada, Shelley Berkley, violated ethics rules by using her office to try to help her husband's medical practice but had no "corrupt intent" in doing so, the U.S. House Ethics Committee said on Thursday.
The committee said no further action was needed against the Democratic member of the House of Representatives. It had launched a probe in July into allegations Berkley may have been improperly involved in a bid to help save a hospital program linked to her husband's business.
Berkley's husband, Larry Lehrner, is a kidney specialist who owns a string of dialysis facilities and had a contract with the transplant unit at University Medical Center in Las Vegas when it was threatened with closure.
Nevada Republicans asserted in their initial complaint to Congress that Berkley would have directly benefited financially from her involvement in the 2008 case due to her husband's links to the hospital's kidney center.
Berkley, who failed in November to unseat Nevada Republican Dean Heller from his U.S. Senate seat in a narrow race, has said her effort to help keep the center open when it was facing federal action that could have resulted in its closure was not motivated by a potential financial interest.
She said she did nothing wrong.
A House Ethics panel agreed that her work to help the transplant center did not constitute a violation, but said that it was a mistake for her office to assist her husband's dialysis business in getting payment reimbursements.
"Representative Berkley had a legitimate concern, raised at the time that these issues were ongoing, that failures on the part of government insurers to reimburse providers in a timely fashion might result in the providers opting not to see patients insured by those programs," the Ethics Committee said in a statement.
It added that Berkley testified credibly that she had not helped her husband to obtain future benefits, and that the level of assistance her office provided him was not unusual compared to that given to other doctors.
But the panel ruled that she was mistaken when she determined her course of action was proper, although her lack of "any corrupt intent" mitigates the severity of the violations.
Heller, who had been a member of the House at the time, also joined in the Nevada delegation's efforts to keep the government from closing the kidney unit.
(Reporting by Cynthia Johnston; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
LAS VEGAS | Fri Dec 21, 2012 2:26am EST
(Reuters) - A seven-term U.S. congresswoman from Nevada, Shelley Berkley, violated ethics rules by using her office to try to help her husband's medical practice but had no "corrupt intent" in doing so, the U.S. House Ethics Committee said on Thursday.
The committee said no further action was needed against the Democratic member of the House of Representatives. It had launched a probe in July into allegations Berkley may have been improperly involved in a bid to help save a hospital program linked to her husband's business.
Berkley's husband, Larry Lehrner, is a kidney specialist who owns a string of dialysis facilities and had a contract with the transplant unit at University Medical Center in Las Vegas when it was threatened with closure.
Nevada Republicans asserted in their initial complaint to Congress that Berkley would have directly benefited financially from her involvement in the 2008 case due to her husband's links to the hospital's kidney center.
Berkley, who failed in November to unseat Nevada Republican Dean Heller from his U.S. Senate seat in a narrow race, has said her effort to help keep the center open when it was facing federal action that could have resulted in its closure was not motivated by a potential financial interest.
She said she did nothing wrong.
A House Ethics panel agreed that her work to help the transplant center did not constitute a violation, but said that it was a mistake for her office to assist her husband's dialysis business in getting payment reimbursements.
"Representative Berkley had a legitimate concern, raised at the time that these issues were ongoing, that failures on the part of government insurers to reimburse providers in a timely fashion might result in the providers opting not to see patients insured by those programs," the Ethics Committee said in a statement.
It added that Berkley testified credibly that she had not helped her husband to obtain future benefits, and that the level of assistance her office provided him was not unusual compared to that given to other doctors.
But the panel ruled that she was mistaken when she determined her course of action was proper, although her lack of "any corrupt intent" mitigates the severity of the violations.
Heller, who had been a member of the House at the time, also joined in the Nevada delegation's efforts to keep the government from closing the kidney unit.
(Reporting by Cynthia Johnston; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
North Korea says it has detained a US citizen for unspecified 'crimes'
Dec. 21, 2012
PYONGYANG, North Korea — North Korea said Friday that it has detained an American citizen who has confessed to unspecified crimes.
State media said in a short dispatch that someone named Pae Jun Ho entered North Korea on Nov. 3 as a tourist but was detained because of crimes.
The North said the crimes were "proven through evidence" but didn't elaborate.
Pyongyang has detained and eventually released several Americans in recent years. Some have been journalists and others Christians accused of religious proselytizing.
In 2009, two journalists were detained after crossing into the North from China while on a reporting trip. They were later released .
South Korean activists have told local media in Seoul that the detained man is a Korean American and was taken into custody after entering North Korea to guide tourists. He operates a tourism company that specializes in North Korea, the reports said.
The North Korean dispatch said officials from the Swedish Embassy met with the American on Friday, but there were no other details about the meeting.
Karl-Olof Andersson, Sweden's ambassador to North Korea, told The Associated Press he could not comment on the case and referred the matter to the U.S. State Department. Sweden represents the U.S. in diplomatic affairs in North Korea since Washington and Pyongyang do not have diplomatic relations.
The detained American is undergoing "legal treatment" according to North Korea's criminal law, the North's official Korean Central News Agency said.
source: Greenfield Reporter
PYONGYANG, North Korea — North Korea said Friday that it has detained an American citizen who has confessed to unspecified crimes.
State media said in a short dispatch that someone named Pae Jun Ho entered North Korea on Nov. 3 as a tourist but was detained because of crimes.
The North said the crimes were "proven through evidence" but didn't elaborate.
Pyongyang has detained and eventually released several Americans in recent years. Some have been journalists and others Christians accused of religious proselytizing.
In 2009, two journalists were detained after crossing into the North from China while on a reporting trip. They were later released .
South Korean activists have told local media in Seoul that the detained man is a Korean American and was taken into custody after entering North Korea to guide tourists. He operates a tourism company that specializes in North Korea, the reports said.
The North Korean dispatch said officials from the Swedish Embassy met with the American on Friday, but there were no other details about the meeting.
Karl-Olof Andersson, Sweden's ambassador to North Korea, told The Associated Press he could not comment on the case and referred the matter to the U.S. State Department. Sweden represents the U.S. in diplomatic affairs in North Korea since Washington and Pyongyang do not have diplomatic relations.
The detained American is undergoing "legal treatment" according to North Korea's criminal law, the North's official Korean Central News Agency said.
source: Greenfield Reporter
Thursday, December 20, 2012
'I am the devil': Former classmate reveals school gunman had 'online devil worshiping page' as childhood barber recounts how he never spoke and just stared at floors
Dec. 20, 2012
Medical examiner enlists help of geneticist to see if there is a biological reason behind massacre
Newtown resident raises possibility that Adam Lanza, 20, was angry and may have snapped over mother's possible plans to commit him
Nancy Lanza, 52, was shot to death in her own bed by her son before the Sandy Hook killings
Lanza killed 20 children and six adults in the school before killing himself as police closed in
By Meghan Keneally and Rachel Quigley
PUBLISHED: 11:05 EST, 19 December 2012 | UPDATED: 11:51 EST, 19 December 2012
(Daily Mail) - The Sandy Hook gunman worshiped the devil and had an online page dedicated to Satan, a former classmate revealed, as his childhood barber recalls Adam Lanza never spoke and would stare at the floor every time he had his hair cut.
Lanza's worshiping page had the word 'Devil' written in red, Gothic-style letters against a black background, Trevor L. Todd told The National Enquirer, something which he said was 'weird' and 'gave him the chills'.
The FBI are trying to piece together his smashed up hard drive to see if his online footprint will reveal any motive for the killing, but they strongly believe he made use of devil-worshiping and suicide sites and boasted of his murder plans on message forums.
Adam Lanza's childhood barber Bob Skuba revealed today that Nancy Lanza stopped bringing her son in for haircuts a few years ago so he thought he had moved away from the area.
He told CNN that Adam would never speak or even look at him any time he came in for a cut, which was every six weeks for years.
'It’s just weird that I actually touched him. I'd tried to joke with him,' Skuba said. 'He wouldn’t even look at me. He would just be looking down at the tiles the whole time.
'I wish I would have killed him then. Or he should have killed himself a long time ago. He would have saved us all the trouble.
'I should have slit and stabbed him by accident. It would have been a lot better for those people.'
Cutting Adam Lanza’s hair 'was a very long half an hour. It was a very uncomfortable situation', stylist Diane Harty said.
She said that she never heard his voice even once and that Nancy, a divorcee, also hardly spoke - only to tell Adam what to do as he would not listen to anyone else.
It also emerged today that the chief medical examiner in the massacre is enlisting the help of a geneticist to see if they can find a biological motive behind why the 'troubled genius' shot dead 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Friday.
Dr H. Wayne Carver says he wants to know if there is any identifiable disease associated with the behavior of the shooter, especially as Asperger's syndrome - which Adam is thought to have suffered from - is not associated with violent behavior.
'I’m exploring with the department of genetics what might be possible, if anything is possible,' Dr Carver said. 'Is there any identifiable disease associated with this behavior?'
He is also awaiting toxicology results.
Lanza's mental state is vital as to why he may have committed one of the worst mass shootings in American history.
Another working theory is that he was angry that his mother was planning to commit him to a psychiatric facility because he was becoming too difficult for her to handle alone.
Given his decision to kill his mother Nancy while she lay sleeping in her bed at their Connecticut home and then drive to his former elementary school to purposefully kill innocent children, there had to be a strong connection in his mind between his anger and the school.
Nancy, 52, was thought to volunteer at Sandy Hook Elementary School, and so the theory extends to the fact that Adam felt he loved those children more than she loved him, since she was planning to send him away.
A friend told the New York Post that Nancy was overwhelmed.
'It was really hard for her as a single mother. It’s hard enough raising an autistic child, just me and my wife. I couldn’t imagine doing it alone,' said Rich Collins, 54, a Lanza family friend who has an autistic son, Jeffrey, 17.
'I think it’s important to get the part of the story out — that an unmarried woman was trying to raise an autistic child on her own. I think she needed more support.'
Fox News quotes a neighborhood figure, whose father works as the pastor of an area church, as saying that the 20-year-old shooter found out that his mother was in the legal process of having him committed and was upset.
That news, coupled with his jealousy of the time she allegedly spent with a group of kindergarteners at Sandy Hook, is thought to have served as the basis of the killing.
A number of factors are still unconfirmed in the theory, and it appears that they may remain as such for some time.
Records of conservatorship filings, which Nancy Lanza would have needed to make in order to commit her son since he is over 18-years-old, are sealed by the courts so if any such filings were made they will not be released publicly.
'Adam Lanza believed she cared more for the children than she did for him, and the reason he probably thought this (was the fact that) she was petitioning for conservatorship and wanted to have him committed,' Joshua Flashman told Fox News.
One of the biggest questions remaining ever since the shooting was reported on Friday was Nancy's connection to the school which was clearly singled out as a target by Adam.
The majority of his shooting was limited to the reception, where he forced his way into the building and killed those standing in his way, and then to a single first grade classroom.
Those children are thought to be the ones that Nancy grew close with during the last academic year, when they were in kindergarten.
Initial reports immediately after the shooting claimed that Nancy was a full time or even substitute teacher at the elementary school, though as the chaos of the day slowed, school officials said that she was not on any records of having worked there in any formal capacity.
That option leaves the possibility open that she volunteered her time with the young children, though school board member Cody McCubbin could not confirm that role when asked by MailOnline.
That was echoed by Lillian Bittman, a former school board member who told the Wall Street Journal: ‘No one has heard of her. Teachers don’t know her.’
Though the court records will never back up the claim that Nancy was trying to have her son committed, her actions do lend credence to the idea because she had spent much time over the course of this year traveling to different schools to find a suitable place to send Adam.
Former babysitters of Adam's said that she warned that she could never turn her back on the young boy, meaning that when she went to visit prospective schools, Adam was either with her or very aware of the fact that she had gone shopping for his next home.
In a Facebook conversation between Nancy and her former sister-in-law Marsha, Nancy revealed that she had wanted to downsize from her $1.4million home in Newtown.
'I am still in the same place but getting to the point where I may want a smaller house. I travel a lot, spend time with friends, work with a couple of charities,' she wrote in one of the messages.
'HE NEVER SPOKE OR MADE EYE CONTACT': ADAM LANZA'S HAIRSTYLIST SPEAKS OUT ABOUT THE 'UNCOMFORTABLE' APPOINTMENTS
As a teenager, Adam Lanza would come in for a haircut about every six weeks without speaking or looking at anyone and always accompanied by his mother, said stylists at a Newtown salon.
He stopped coming in a few years ago, and the employees at the salon thought he had moved away, said stylist Bob Skuba.
The comments from him and his colleagues were among the first describing how the Lanzas interacted with each other. Investigators have found no letters or diaries that could explain the attack, one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history.
Cutting Adam Lanza's hair 'was a very long half an hour. It was a very uncomfortable situation,' stylist Diane Harty said. She said that she never heard his voice and that Nancy Lanza also hardly spoke.
Another stylist, Jessica Phillips, echoed their descriptions of the Lanzas and added that Nancy Lanza would give her son directions about what to do and where to go.
Adam would move only 'when his mother told him to,' Skuba said.
'I would say, "Adam, come on." He wouldn't move,' Skuba said.
'And his mother would have to say, "Adam, come on, he's ready." It was like I was invisible.'
He said Adam also wouldn't move from his chair after his hair was cut until his mother told him to.
If a stylist would ask Adam a question, Skuba said, his mother would answer.
'He would just be looking down at the tiles ... the whole time,' Skuba said.
Former classmates have previously described Adam Lanza as intelligent but remote, and former high school adviser described him as anxious and shy. Several people who knew his mother have described her as a devoted parent.
Divorce paperwork released this week showed that Nancy Lanza had the authority to make all decisions regarding Adam's upbringing. The divorce was finalized in September 2009, when Adam Lanza was 17.
- The Associated Press
Medical examiner enlists help of geneticist to see if there is a biological reason behind massacre
Newtown resident raises possibility that Adam Lanza, 20, was angry and may have snapped over mother's possible plans to commit him
Nancy Lanza, 52, was shot to death in her own bed by her son before the Sandy Hook killings
Lanza killed 20 children and six adults in the school before killing himself as police closed in
By Meghan Keneally and Rachel Quigley
PUBLISHED: 11:05 EST, 19 December 2012 | UPDATED: 11:51 EST, 19 December 2012
Lanza's worshiping page had the word 'Devil' written in red, Gothic-style letters against a black background, Trevor L. Todd told The National Enquirer, something which he said was 'weird' and 'gave him the chills'.
The FBI are trying to piece together his smashed up hard drive to see if his online footprint will reveal any motive for the killing, but they strongly believe he made use of devil-worshiping and suicide sites and boasted of his murder plans on message forums.
Adam Lanza's childhood barber Bob Skuba revealed today that Nancy Lanza stopped bringing her son in for haircuts a few years ago so he thought he had moved away from the area.
'It’s just weird that I actually touched him. I'd tried to joke with him,' Skuba said. 'He wouldn’t even look at me. He would just be looking down at the tiles the whole time.
'I wish I would have killed him then. Or he should have killed himself a long time ago. He would have saved us all the trouble.
'I should have slit and stabbed him by accident. It would have been a lot better for those people.'
Cutting Adam Lanza’s hair 'was a very long half an hour. It was a very uncomfortable situation', stylist Diane Harty said.
She said that she never heard his voice even once and that Nancy, a divorcee, also hardly spoke - only to tell Adam what to do as he would not listen to anyone else.
 |
| Weird: A former classmate of Adam Lanza while they were at Newtown High School said he had online page worshiping the devil |
Dr H. Wayne Carver says he wants to know if there is any identifiable disease associated with the behavior of the shooter, especially as Asperger's syndrome - which Adam is thought to have suffered from - is not associated with violent behavior.
'I’m exploring with the department of genetics what might be possible, if anything is possible,' Dr Carver said. 'Is there any identifiable disease associated with this behavior?'
He is also awaiting toxicology results.
Lanza's mental state is vital as to why he may have committed one of the worst mass shootings in American history.
Another working theory is that he was angry that his mother was planning to commit him to a psychiatric facility because he was becoming too difficult for her to handle alone.
Given his decision to kill his mother Nancy while she lay sleeping in her bed at their Connecticut home and then drive to his former elementary school to purposefully kill innocent children, there had to be a strong connection in his mind between his anger and the school.
Nancy, 52, was thought to volunteer at Sandy Hook Elementary School, and so the theory extends to the fact that Adam felt he loved those children more than she loved him, since she was planning to send him away.
 |
| It is thought that Nancy wanted to downsize and find a place for Adam to go to college as she was tired of home schooling the troubled 20-year-old |
 |
| Struggling: Various family friends have said that she warned that you could never turn your back on Adam while he was in your care, explaining why it may have been taking a toll on her prompting for her to look for options |
'It was really hard for her as a single mother. It’s hard enough raising an autistic child, just me and my wife. I couldn’t imagine doing it alone,' said Rich Collins, 54, a Lanza family friend who has an autistic son, Jeffrey, 17.
'I think it’s important to get the part of the story out — that an unmarried woman was trying to raise an autistic child on her own. I think she needed more support.'
Fox News quotes a neighborhood figure, whose father works as the pastor of an area church, as saying that the 20-year-old shooter found out that his mother was in the legal process of having him committed and was upset.
That news, coupled with his jealousy of the time she allegedly spent with a group of kindergarteners at Sandy Hook, is thought to have served as the basis of the killing.
A number of factors are still unconfirmed in the theory, and it appears that they may remain as such for some time.
Records of conservatorship filings, which Nancy Lanza would have needed to make in order to commit her son since he is over 18-years-old, are sealed by the courts so if any such filings were made they will not be released publicly.
'Adam Lanza believed she cared more for the children than she did for him, and the reason he probably thought this (was the fact that) she was petitioning for conservatorship and wanted to have him committed,' Joshua Flashman told Fox News.
 |
| Targeted: All but one of the students in this first grade class were killed by gunman Adam Lanza, prompting the theory that he chose them because his mother worked with that group as a volunteer |
 |
| Unanswered questions: It is still unclear what Nancy Lanza's connection was to Sandy Hook Elementary School, though it is confirmed that Adam attended it as a child |
The majority of his shooting was limited to the reception, where he forced his way into the building and killed those standing in his way, and then to a single first grade classroom.
Those children are thought to be the ones that Nancy grew close with during the last academic year, when they were in kindergarten.
Initial reports immediately after the shooting claimed that Nancy was a full time or even substitute teacher at the elementary school, though as the chaos of the day slowed, school officials said that she was not on any records of having worked there in any formal capacity.
That option leaves the possibility open that she volunteered her time with the young children, though school board member Cody McCubbin could not confirm that role when asked by MailOnline.
That was echoed by Lillian Bittman, a former school board member who told the Wall Street Journal: ‘No one has heard of her. Teachers don’t know her.’
Though the court records will never back up the claim that Nancy was trying to have her son committed, her actions do lend credence to the idea because she had spent much time over the course of this year traveling to different schools to find a suitable place to send Adam.
Former babysitters of Adam's said that she warned that she could never turn her back on the young boy, meaning that when she went to visit prospective schools, Adam was either with her or very aware of the fact that she had gone shopping for his next home.
In a Facebook conversation between Nancy and her former sister-in-law Marsha, Nancy revealed that she had wanted to downsize from her $1.4million home in Newtown.
'I am still in the same place but getting to the point where I may want a smaller house. I travel a lot, spend time with friends, work with a couple of charities,' she wrote in one of the messages.
'HE NEVER SPOKE OR MADE EYE CONTACT': ADAM LANZA'S HAIRSTYLIST SPEAKS OUT ABOUT THE 'UNCOMFORTABLE' APPOINTMENTS
As a teenager, Adam Lanza would come in for a haircut about every six weeks without speaking or looking at anyone and always accompanied by his mother, said stylists at a Newtown salon.
He stopped coming in a few years ago, and the employees at the salon thought he had moved away, said stylist Bob Skuba.
 |
| Adam in the chair: Hairstylist Diane Harty said Adam was difficult to deal with |
Cutting Adam Lanza's hair 'was a very long half an hour. It was a very uncomfortable situation,' stylist Diane Harty said. She said that she never heard his voice and that Nancy Lanza also hardly spoke.
Another stylist, Jessica Phillips, echoed their descriptions of the Lanzas and added that Nancy Lanza would give her son directions about what to do and where to go.
Adam would move only 'when his mother told him to,' Skuba said.
'I would say, "Adam, come on." He wouldn't move,' Skuba said.
'And his mother would have to say, "Adam, come on, he's ready." It was like I was invisible.'
He said Adam also wouldn't move from his chair after his hair was cut until his mother told him to.
If a stylist would ask Adam a question, Skuba said, his mother would answer.
'He would just be looking down at the tiles ... the whole time,' Skuba said.
Former classmates have previously described Adam Lanza as intelligent but remote, and former high school adviser described him as anxious and shy. Several people who knew his mother have described her as a devoted parent.
Divorce paperwork released this week showed that Nancy Lanza had the authority to make all decisions regarding Adam's upbringing. The divorce was finalized in September 2009, when Adam Lanza was 17.
- The Associated Press
Free Speech Academics Rally Around Academic Who Wanted to Shut Down NRA Free Speech
Dec. 20, 2012
by William A. Jacobson
(Legal Insurrection) - You’ve heard about Erik Loomis, the University of Rhode Island assistant professor of history who launched an almost psychotic, foul-mouthed Twitter tirade against the NRA, accusing it of being a terrorist organization, of complicity in and criminal culpability for murder, and a host of other invectives culminating in his wish to see Wayne LaPierre’s “head on a stick.”
This is the same Loomis who laughed when Sarah Palin was smeared with the Gabby Giffords shooting because of an electoral map the insane Jared Loughner never even saw. He didn’t mind when the left-wing mob sought to destroy Palin over nothing. Loomis insisted, however, that a different standard be applied to his metaphor of a head on a stick, clarifying that he only wanted life imprisonment for LaPierre.
The NRA and LaPierre’s transgressions which warranted imprisonment or worse? They exercised their constitutional rights to petition the government for redress (the often forgotten right, often disparaged as “lobbying”) and to their own speech in favor of policies they favored. Because he disagreed with those policies, and made illogical jumps to claims of culpability in murder, Loomis wanted them imprisoned, at a minimum.
Soon after the controversy broke I took the position that Loomis’ employer should not be contacted, because that is the tactic frequently used against me by liberals.
Yet apparently a lot of people did contact Loomis’ employer, or the employer otherwise became aware of Loomis’ Twitter vituperation, resulting in the President of URI issuing a statement distancing the University from Loomis’ tweets.
Now a variety of people are signing on to a statement at Crooked Timber rallying around Loomis on the grounds of academic freedom and free speech.
The statement focuses on the narrow issue of the “head on a stick” tweet and whether it was an incitement to violence. The statement also creates a distraction by trying to blame Prof. Glenn Reynolds for properly characterizing Loomis’ invective as “eliminationist rhetoric” using the standard applied by the media and Democrats to the Tea Party.
The Crooked Timber statement has been signed by hundreds of people, some of whom identify as academics, others who show no institutional affiliation, and a variety of left-wing bloggers.
I don’t think Loomis should be fired, but that doesn’t mean he should be free from criticism.
And he certainly is not a hero of anything.
He’s just a guy who wanted to deprive others of the rights he claims for himself.
Update – Here’s the comment I posted at Crooked Timber:
by William A. Jacobson
(Legal Insurrection) - You’ve heard about Erik Loomis, the University of Rhode Island assistant professor of history who launched an almost psychotic, foul-mouthed Twitter tirade against the NRA, accusing it of being a terrorist organization, of complicity in and criminal culpability for murder, and a host of other invectives culminating in his wish to see Wayne LaPierre’s “head on a stick.”
This is the same Loomis who laughed when Sarah Palin was smeared with the Gabby Giffords shooting because of an electoral map the insane Jared Loughner never even saw. He didn’t mind when the left-wing mob sought to destroy Palin over nothing. Loomis insisted, however, that a different standard be applied to his metaphor of a head on a stick, clarifying that he only wanted life imprisonment for LaPierre.
The NRA and LaPierre’s transgressions which warranted imprisonment or worse? They exercised their constitutional rights to petition the government for redress (the often forgotten right, often disparaged as “lobbying”) and to their own speech in favor of policies they favored. Because he disagreed with those policies, and made illogical jumps to claims of culpability in murder, Loomis wanted them imprisoned, at a minimum.
Soon after the controversy broke I took the position that Loomis’ employer should not be contacted, because that is the tactic frequently used against me by liberals.
Yet apparently a lot of people did contact Loomis’ employer, or the employer otherwise became aware of Loomis’ Twitter vituperation, resulting in the President of URI issuing a statement distancing the University from Loomis’ tweets.
Now a variety of people are signing on to a statement at Crooked Timber rallying around Loomis on the grounds of academic freedom and free speech.
The statement focuses on the narrow issue of the “head on a stick” tweet and whether it was an incitement to violence. The statement also creates a distraction by trying to blame Prof. Glenn Reynolds for properly characterizing Loomis’ invective as “eliminationist rhetoric” using the standard applied by the media and Democrats to the Tea Party.
The Crooked Timber statement has been signed by hundreds of people, some of whom identify as academics, others who show no institutional affiliation, and a variety of left-wing bloggers.
I don’t think Loomis should be fired, but that doesn’t mean he should be free from criticism.
And he certainly is not a hero of anything.
He’s just a guy who wanted to deprive others of the rights he claims for himself.
Update – Here’s the comment I posted at Crooked Timber:
NRA sees rise in membership after Connecticut school shooting
Dec. 20, 2012
The National Rifle Association, while staying mostly quiet in the immediate aftermath of the mass shooting in Connecticut, has registered an average of 8,000 new members a day since the tragedy, an NRA source told Fox News.
While this broadly aligns with trends seen after similar incidents in the past, the surge in membership this time is said to dwarf past trends.
The source, based on his access to an internal memo prepared by the organization’s membership division, said both the number of individual contributions to the NRA and their average amount have risen significantly in this period.
Amid the uptick, the NRA is planning what it describes as a “major” news conference on Friday. In its first public statement since last week's shooting, issued Tuesday by an aide to NRA President Wayne LaPierre, the organization also conveyed condolences to the murder victims' families and expressed the group's willingness to offer "meaningful contributions to help make sure this never happens again."
"The National Rifle Association of America is made up of four million moms and dads, sons and daughters -- and we were shocked, saddened and heartbroken by the news of the horrific and senseless murders in Newtown," the statement said on Tuesday.
"Out of respect for the families, and as a matter of common decency, we have given time for mourning, prayer and a full investigation of the facts before commenting."
Sources close to the issue had earlier alerted Fox News that the National Rifle Association would soon start to "push back" against gun-control proponents.
Following the shooting at the Connecticut elementary school, gun-control advocates immediately launched a campaign to pressure Congress and the Obama administration into enacting stricter regulation of guns and rifles.
These forces -- led by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. – initially faced little resistance from the NRA, though conservatives questioned the value of the proposed measures.
The NRA news conference on Friday could alter the debate landscape. It also comes as President Obama on Wednesday announced a new administration task force, led by Vice President Biden, to examine policy proposals to reduce gun violence.
Though the task force was given a broad mandate, Obama made clear that the group would focus in large part on gun control. The president said he expects “concrete” proposals on his desk by January.
Fox News' James Rosen contributed to this report.
The National Rifle Association, while staying mostly quiet in the immediate aftermath of the mass shooting in Connecticut, has registered an average of 8,000 new members a day since the tragedy, an NRA source told Fox News.
While this broadly aligns with trends seen after similar incidents in the past, the surge in membership this time is said to dwarf past trends.
The source, based on his access to an internal memo prepared by the organization’s membership division, said both the number of individual contributions to the NRA and their average amount have risen significantly in this period.
Amid the uptick, the NRA is planning what it describes as a “major” news conference on Friday. In its first public statement since last week's shooting, issued Tuesday by an aide to NRA President Wayne LaPierre, the organization also conveyed condolences to the murder victims' families and expressed the group's willingness to offer "meaningful contributions to help make sure this never happens again."
"The National Rifle Association of America is made up of four million moms and dads, sons and daughters -- and we were shocked, saddened and heartbroken by the news of the horrific and senseless murders in Newtown," the statement said on Tuesday.
"Out of respect for the families, and as a matter of common decency, we have given time for mourning, prayer and a full investigation of the facts before commenting."
Sources close to the issue had earlier alerted Fox News that the National Rifle Association would soon start to "push back" against gun-control proponents.
Following the shooting at the Connecticut elementary school, gun-control advocates immediately launched a campaign to pressure Congress and the Obama administration into enacting stricter regulation of guns and rifles.
These forces -- led by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. – initially faced little resistance from the NRA, though conservatives questioned the value of the proposed measures.
The NRA news conference on Friday could alter the debate landscape. It also comes as President Obama on Wednesday announced a new administration task force, led by Vice President Biden, to examine policy proposals to reduce gun violence.
Though the task force was given a broad mandate, Obama made clear that the group would focus in large part on gun control. The president said he expects “concrete” proposals on his desk by January.
Fox News' James Rosen contributed to this report.
Egypt’s Mubarak taken to military hospital after fall
Dec. 20, 2012
AFP - Egypt's ousted president Hosni Mubarak was transferred on Wednesday to a military hospital almost a week after slipping and injuring himself in a prison shower, a security official said.
Mubarak was taken by ambulance from Torah jail to the Maadi military hospital in Cairo under heavy police protection, the official said, adding that the former strongman was due to undergo a head scan.
Earlier a deputy interior minister in charge of prison affairs, Mohammed Ibrahim, said Mubarak would be returned to his cell at Torah prison once his treatment is completed.
Mubarak, 84, fell in the shower on Saturday and was treated in the medical ward for a head injury and bruising, the state news agency MENA reported.
The former president was sentenced to life in June, along with his interior minister Habib Adly, over the killings of protesters during the uprising that toppled him last year, during which around 850 people died.
Mubarak ruled Egypt for three decades before he was forced to resign on February 11, 2011 following 18 days of mass protests.
Mubarak was taken by ambulance from Torah jail to the Maadi military hospital in Cairo under heavy police protection, the official said, adding that the former strongman was due to undergo a head scan.
Earlier a deputy interior minister in charge of prison affairs, Mohammed Ibrahim, said Mubarak would be returned to his cell at Torah prison once his treatment is completed.
Mubarak, 84, fell in the shower on Saturday and was treated in the medical ward for a head injury and bruising, the state news agency MENA reported.
The former president was sentenced to life in June, along with his interior minister Habib Adly, over the killings of protesters during the uprising that toppled him last year, during which around 850 people died.
Mubarak ruled Egypt for three decades before he was forced to resign on February 11, 2011 following 18 days of mass protests.
U.S. Army will seek death penalty for soldier charged in massacre of 16 Afghan villagers, fails to even hold trial for Muslim soldier responsible for Fort Hood massacre
Dec. 20, 2012
Only in Obamaland...
The US Army has said it will seek the death penalty for a soldier charged in the killing of 16 Afghan villagers during a pre-dawn raid.
Staff Sergeant Robert Bales is accused of going on a shooting rampage in two southern Afghanistan villages on March 11.
Wednesday's announcement followed Bales' pre-trial hearing last month, during which several witnesses testified from Afghanistan via video conference.
Prosecutors say Bales left his remote base early, attacking one village before returning to the base. He allegedly slipped away again to attack a second nearby village. Sixteen people were killed, including nine children.
No date has been set for Bales' court martial, which will be held at Joint Base Lewis-McChord south of Seattle.
Bales' civilian lawyer, John Henry Browne, did not immediately return an email seeking comment Wednesday.
But on Tuesday, he told the AP that he met with Army officials last week to argue that Bales should not face the possibility of the death penalty, given that Bales was serving his fourth deployment in a war zone.
Bales' defence team has said the government's case is incomplete and outside experts have said a key issue going forward will be to determine whether Bales, who served tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.
An Army criminal investigations command special agent testified at the pre-trial hearing that Bales tested positive for steroids three days after the killings, and other soldiers testified that Bales had been drinking the evening of the massacre.
Prosecutors, in asking for a court-martial trial, have pointed to statements Bales made after he was apprehended, saying that they demonstrated "a clear memory of what he had done, and consciousness of wrong-doing."
Several soldiers testified at the hearing that Bales returned to the base alone just before dawn, covered in blood, and that he made incriminating statements such as, "I thought I was doing the right thing."
The slayings drew such angry protests that the US temporarily halted combat operations in Afghanistan, and it was three weeks before American investigators could reach the crime scenes.
source: Sky News
Only in Obamaland...
The US Army has said it will seek the death penalty for a soldier charged in the killing of 16 Afghan villagers during a pre-dawn raid.
Staff Sergeant Robert Bales is accused of going on a shooting rampage in two southern Afghanistan villages on March 11.
Wednesday's announcement followed Bales' pre-trial hearing last month, during which several witnesses testified from Afghanistan via video conference.
Prosecutors say Bales left his remote base early, attacking one village before returning to the base. He allegedly slipped away again to attack a second nearby village. Sixteen people were killed, including nine children.
No date has been set for Bales' court martial, which will be held at Joint Base Lewis-McChord south of Seattle.
Bales' civilian lawyer, John Henry Browne, did not immediately return an email seeking comment Wednesday.
But on Tuesday, he told the AP that he met with Army officials last week to argue that Bales should not face the possibility of the death penalty, given that Bales was serving his fourth deployment in a war zone.
Bales' defence team has said the government's case is incomplete and outside experts have said a key issue going forward will be to determine whether Bales, who served tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.
An Army criminal investigations command special agent testified at the pre-trial hearing that Bales tested positive for steroids three days after the killings, and other soldiers testified that Bales had been drinking the evening of the massacre.
Prosecutors, in asking for a court-martial trial, have pointed to statements Bales made after he was apprehended, saying that they demonstrated "a clear memory of what he had done, and consciousness of wrong-doing."
Several soldiers testified at the hearing that Bales returned to the base alone just before dawn, covered in blood, and that he made incriminating statements such as, "I thought I was doing the right thing."
The slayings drew such angry protests that the US temporarily halted combat operations in Afghanistan, and it was three weeks before American investigators could reach the crime scenes.
source: Sky News
US shooting fuels bullet-proof backpack sales proving capitalism works
Dec. 20, 2012
AFP - On the heels of the deadly shooting tragedy in Connecticut, parents' anxiety is driving a surge in sales of bullet-proof backpacks, in the hope the armored bags can give their kids a safety edge.
For under $300, the company Amendment II -- a play on the Second Amendment to the US constitution, which guarantees the right to bear arms -- is selling a boys' pack with Avengers characters on it and a Little Mermaid one for girls.
"Sewn into the rear of the pack, you can always be confident that the armor hasn't been accidentally left at home and that you or your child are protected in case of the unthinkable," the company says.
"It is an awful thing -- you would never imagine your child with this kind of stuff -- but since the Newtown tragedy, our sales are more than 10 times better than usual," said Richard Craig, head of the Utah company.
He refused to give precise sales figures, and his company also makes a less-costly bulletproof insert.
Amendment II is among a handful of companies that have seized the moment to offer protective gear for US schoolchildren whose parents arguably feel more vulnerable than ever.
Another company, BulletBlocker, is offering inserts for $150-200 that slip into a backpack like a book -- but with a different purpose.
"Light, easy to use, it is as big as a book" says Elmar Uy, vice president at the New Hampshire company.
He said that since Friday, sales were up by 40 percent to 40 inserts a day.
"We don't guarantee anything," he stressed. "It is just peace of mind, security for parents."
In last week's shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, a disturbed 20-year-old shot his mother, then 20 first graders and six staff at Sandy Hook Elementary School, before taking his own life.
"It is non-stop since Sandy Hook. It is all about the terrible things that happened last week, the end of the world hysteria, the Maya prediction; there is a lot of political uncertainty," said Devin Standard. His company Black Dragon Tactical has been selling 30 "ballistic panels" a day.
"The question is: is your life worth 229 dollars? Most people, when they think about this, they say yes," he added.
"If you have a car, you have car insurance; if you have a house, you have home insurance," he argued. "It is a little security blanket, it weighs almost nothing. But it is always there, just in case you are at the wrong place one day."
AFP - On the heels of the deadly shooting tragedy in Connecticut, parents' anxiety is driving a surge in sales of bullet-proof backpacks, in the hope the armored bags can give their kids a safety edge.
For under $300, the company Amendment II -- a play on the Second Amendment to the US constitution, which guarantees the right to bear arms -- is selling a boys' pack with Avengers characters on it and a Little Mermaid one for girls.
"Sewn into the rear of the pack, you can always be confident that the armor hasn't been accidentally left at home and that you or your child are protected in case of the unthinkable," the company says.
"It is an awful thing -- you would never imagine your child with this kind of stuff -- but since the Newtown tragedy, our sales are more than 10 times better than usual," said Richard Craig, head of the Utah company.
He refused to give precise sales figures, and his company also makes a less-costly bulletproof insert.
Amendment II is among a handful of companies that have seized the moment to offer protective gear for US schoolchildren whose parents arguably feel more vulnerable than ever.
Another company, BulletBlocker, is offering inserts for $150-200 that slip into a backpack like a book -- but with a different purpose.
"Light, easy to use, it is as big as a book" says Elmar Uy, vice president at the New Hampshire company.
He said that since Friday, sales were up by 40 percent to 40 inserts a day.
"We don't guarantee anything," he stressed. "It is just peace of mind, security for parents."
In last week's shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, a disturbed 20-year-old shot his mother, then 20 first graders and six staff at Sandy Hook Elementary School, before taking his own life.
"It is non-stop since Sandy Hook. It is all about the terrible things that happened last week, the end of the world hysteria, the Maya prediction; there is a lot of political uncertainty," said Devin Standard. His company Black Dragon Tactical has been selling 30 "ballistic panels" a day.
"The question is: is your life worth 229 dollars? Most people, when they think about this, they say yes," he added.
"If you have a car, you have car insurance; if you have a house, you have home insurance," he argued. "It is a little security blanket, it weighs almost nothing. But it is always there, just in case you are at the wrong place one day."
China video reveals school knife attack. No word when anti-kitchen protest scheduled
Dec. 20, 2012
AFP - Chinese police have released surveillance video footage of a knife-wielding attacker who stabbed 22 students at a primary school last week, after the assault was given limited prominence in national media.
The grainy video shows a male attacker pursuing a group of children through a school gate and slashing one child with a knife, causing her to fall to the ground.
Panicked children then stream out of the school gates to escape the attacker, identified by local police as 36-year-old Min Yongjun, before adults enter equipped with straw brooms, chasing out Min.
No guards are visible close to the school's gate.
No-one was killed but 22 children were injured in the attack at a school in the central Chinese province of Henan on Friday, the same day that 20 children were shot dead at a primary school in Newtown, Connecticut in the US.
Despite the severity and scale of the US attack Chinese social media users complained that the Henan incident should have been given more coverage in the country.
"The headlines are still dominated by the American attack, I haven't seen reports about the attack in Henan which happened on the same day," wrote one user of Sina Weibo -- a website similar to Twitter.
"Aren't Chinese children's lives also important? It's a tragedy."
According to instructions obtained by the China Digital Times website the government's central propaganda department told Chinese media to downplay the Henan attack.
It quoted officials as telling media not to put the news on the front page or lure readers to it, and not to produce reports or comment on it other than those provided by Xinhua, the state-run news agency.
Local authorities said that Min had been "influenced by rumours of the end of the world", which some in China believe is due to occur on Friday, in line with supposed Mayan prophecies.
Six local officials including the school principal were removed from their positions, according to reports.
The grainy video shows a male attacker pursuing a group of children through a school gate and slashing one child with a knife, causing her to fall to the ground.
Panicked children then stream out of the school gates to escape the attacker, identified by local police as 36-year-old Min Yongjun, before adults enter equipped with straw brooms, chasing out Min.
No guards are visible close to the school's gate.
No-one was killed but 22 children were injured in the attack at a school in the central Chinese province of Henan on Friday, the same day that 20 children were shot dead at a primary school in Newtown, Connecticut in the US.
Despite the severity and scale of the US attack Chinese social media users complained that the Henan incident should have been given more coverage in the country.
"The headlines are still dominated by the American attack, I haven't seen reports about the attack in Henan which happened on the same day," wrote one user of Sina Weibo -- a website similar to Twitter.
"Aren't Chinese children's lives also important? It's a tragedy."
According to instructions obtained by the China Digital Times website the government's central propaganda department told Chinese media to downplay the Henan attack.
It quoted officials as telling media not to put the news on the front page or lure readers to it, and not to produce reports or comment on it other than those provided by Xinhua, the state-run news agency.
Local authorities said that Min had been "influenced by rumours of the end of the world", which some in China believe is due to occur on Friday, in line with supposed Mayan prophecies.
Six local officials including the school principal were removed from their positions, according to reports.
Seven Charged In Matteson Chuck E. Cheese’s Brawl, Pizza Ban Crowd Mum
Dec. 20, 2012
MATTESON (CBS) — A brawl Saturday night at the Chuck E. Cheese’s restaurant in Matteson ended in a cloud of pepper spray and seven people arrested on charges ranging from disorderly conduct to battery.
When police arrived about 8:30 p.m., they found several adults screaming obscenities and throwing chairs at each other in the dining room, while parents with young children fled from the restaurant, near U.S. 30 and Cicero Avenue, police said.
Officers ordered the combatants to stop, but when many ignored the command, police used pepper spray to subdue them, according to police. They said two men continued fighting and screaming, one of whom was bleeding from a head wound. Both had to be physically restrained before being handcuffed by police.
Witnesses told police the dispute started when two children got into an argument, the mothers of the children then got into a confrontation and it escalated. Two of the restaurant’s managers said they did not see what caused the initial altercation, police said.
The bleeding man, Lester Whisby, 26, of Chicago, was charged with reckless conduct, disorderly conduct, battery and resisting arrest and was treated by paramedics at the scene. No one else needed medical attention, police said.
Also charged with battery, resisting arrest, reckless conduct and disorderly conduct was Joe Lynch, 27, of Blue Island, according to police.
Charged with reckless conduct and disorderly conduct were Triesha Jackson, 21, and Tevin Johnson, 18, both of Ponca City, Okla; Johnny Fleming, 18, of Sauk Village; Stephen Dyer, 31, of Chicago, and Leslie Whisby, 26, of Chicago, police said.
Police are reviewing video footage of the incident.
It was reminiscent of a similar disturbance at the restaurant in March 2011, when five men and a teenage boy were charged with mob action and disorderly conduct after a brawl in which an arcade machine was tipped over. Police also used pepper spray in that incident.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2012. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
MATTESON (CBS) — A brawl Saturday night at the Chuck E. Cheese’s restaurant in Matteson ended in a cloud of pepper spray and seven people arrested on charges ranging from disorderly conduct to battery.
When police arrived about 8:30 p.m., they found several adults screaming obscenities and throwing chairs at each other in the dining room, while parents with young children fled from the restaurant, near U.S. 30 and Cicero Avenue, police said.
Officers ordered the combatants to stop, but when many ignored the command, police used pepper spray to subdue them, according to police. They said two men continued fighting and screaming, one of whom was bleeding from a head wound. Both had to be physically restrained before being handcuffed by police.
Witnesses told police the dispute started when two children got into an argument, the mothers of the children then got into a confrontation and it escalated. Two of the restaurant’s managers said they did not see what caused the initial altercation, police said.
The bleeding man, Lester Whisby, 26, of Chicago, was charged with reckless conduct, disorderly conduct, battery and resisting arrest and was treated by paramedics at the scene. No one else needed medical attention, police said.
Also charged with battery, resisting arrest, reckless conduct and disorderly conduct was Joe Lynch, 27, of Blue Island, according to police.
Charged with reckless conduct and disorderly conduct were Triesha Jackson, 21, and Tevin Johnson, 18, both of Ponca City, Okla; Johnny Fleming, 18, of Sauk Village; Stephen Dyer, 31, of Chicago, and Leslie Whisby, 26, of Chicago, police said.
Police are reviewing video footage of the incident.
It was reminiscent of a similar disturbance at the restaurant in March 2011, when five men and a teenage boy were charged with mob action and disorderly conduct after a brawl in which an arcade machine was tipped over. Police also used pepper spray in that incident.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2012. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
Personal Responsibility Seen As Hoax As The Blame Game Continues..
Dec. 20, 2012
The Left continues looking for a sane target with it's lame finger pointing in their relentless effort to include guns in the topic. It's time to analyze the analyzer' true agenda.
Analysis: Was Nancy Lanza a monster, or just the mother of one?
As investigations continue into the Sandy Hook massacre, Michele Weldon can't stop thinking about the killer's mother, Nancy Lanza, and if she should be blamed too.
By Michele Weldon
{WOMENSENEWS}--He shot his mother in the face in the bedroom of the home they shared. He obliterated her identity while she was in her bed wearing her pajamas in the place where she homeschooled him for the last few years of his life.
By now the world knows quite well that last Friday Nancy Lanza's 20-year-old son, Adam Lanza, shot her first before killing 20 children, six adults and himself.
As investigations continue, we learn more about the mother of the young man reviled as a monster. And it is Nancy Lanza I can't stop thinking about. Was she, as some report, a monster too?
Necessarily the world --including President Barack Obama--openly mourns the children, teachers and administrators who were brutally massacred at Sandy Hook Elementary School, as Hanukah was ending and 10 days before Christmas, in Newtown, Conn.--as do I.
Like so many of us parents, I cannot imagine the slaying of my own child in a safe classroom--or anywhere. I know we parents spend our lives striving to protect our children from every imaginable threat, from bacteria to bullies. As parents we are hard-wired to nurture, nourish, save them from any possible harm. We install hand sanitizers at the doors of schools. Yet a killer shoots his way through the door.
Certainly I am in no position to judge the difficulty of raising a child with mental illness. I am blessed with three healthy, successful sons, ages 24, 21 and 18. Though others have felt free to judge and even blame.
Yet, I ask what happens when a mother cannot save the world from her son? Or herself? And what happens if the mother herself may have contributed to the grooming of someone we see as a monster? I have no easy answers and I can't stop wondering: Are the sins of the children ever really Mom's fault?
Extreme Form of Erasure
"I wouldn't say she is a monster," said Rita Weinberg, a Chicago-area clinical psychologist for more than 60 years and professor emerita of the city's National Louis University.
Weinberg consulted at a nearby pre-school following the shootings of school children in 1988 by Laurie Dann in the northern Chicago suburbs, a rare case when a woman does the shooting and both parents were blamed. In fact, they were both sued by the pre-school children's parents and settled the final case for at least $1 million, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Lanza's shooting his mother in the face is "the most extreme kind of erasure," said Weinberg. "The face is how you know a person." It is what she called "obliteration."
Whatever happened in their home, Nancy Lanza's legacy is as the mother of a son now to be immortalized as a demon. That will not be obliterated.
Some sensational news accounts paint Nancy Lanza as a survivalist, someone who was prepping for the end of the world, stockpiling weapons and urging her sons to do target shooting, particularly after the 2009 divorce from her husband, Peter Lanza.
Other reports blatantly deny that Nancy Lanza was anything but a good mother.
"There was nothing odd and weird about her," said her friend John Tambascio, according to NBC News. "She was completely normal and tried to help her kids just like all of us would."
One friend called her "bubbly." I see from photographs that she was beautiful.
Her 24-year-old son, Ryan Lanza, who was not involved in this massacre, will forever bear the stigma of his brother's evil. But does he have to live with the notion that his own mother may own part of the blame? Or not?
It is so unnatural a notion that the concept of mothering a monster is the stuff of horror films such as "Rosemary's Baby," "Demon Seed," "The Omen," "Alien" and all their sequels and remakes.
More Young Adult Murderers
Unfortunately it is all too real. The number of parents killed by their children in the United States has been increasing since 1980, when that group accounted for 9.7 percent of all homicides, according to the FBI. In 2008, parents killed by their children rose to 13 percent of all homicides.
The FBI lists offending rates for homicides as highest among those 18-24 years old. For the period of 1980-2008, there were 43.1 violent offenders per 100,000 people in that age group. That is nearly double the rate of 22.1 murderous youth per 100,000 people in the same age range for 1985.
Worse yet, it has become more commonplace to read American news accounts of sons who kill their mothers.
Jeffrey Pyne was on trial until last week for the brutal stabbing of his mother, Ruth. The Michigan son is now awaiting the verdict in the trial of his mother's murder.
In September, a 16-year-old Bronx son was accused of killing his mother and placing her body in a plastic trash bin.
Earlier this summer, a Chicago man shot his 62-year-old mother, reportedly because she nagged him. In October, a 17-year old in Texas called 911 after killing his mother and his sisters and explained he "wasn't even really angry." In New Delhi, India, the day after the Newtown massacre, a 25-year-old man stabbed his mother.
Half of all murders committed by 19-34 year olds in the U.S. were of family members, FBI statistics show. Most of those, or 66 percent, use guns as a weapon. More than 28 percent of all victims killed from 1980-2008 were family members.
'Product of My Life's Work'
"There was no way to atone for my son's behavior," wrote Susan Klebold, the mother of Dylan Klebold, one of two killers responsible for the 1999 Columbine High School shootings. In the November 2009 issue of O magazine, she continued: "Dylan was a product of my life's work, but his final actions implied that he had never been taught the fundamentals of right and wrong."
Arlene Holmes, the mother of James Holmes, the 24-year-old Aurora, Colo., shooter who killed 12 people and injured 58 others earlier this year, has begged for privacy and expressed condolences to the victims' families, though she has stated she will stand by her son.
All sorts of influences other than mothers have been blamed for Adam Lanza's actions. Ultra violent video games, films and television shows, the lack of gun and ammunition control, the news media's habit of sensationalizing the rampages, the cutbacks in services for the mentally ill.
Is it just being labeled as different that can cause this type of action? Kathleen M. Heide, professor of criminology at the University of South Florida in Tampa, has spent decades studying parricide, or the murder of parents by children. Heide wrote in the 2011 Encyclopedia of Adolescence that humiliation is a key trigger for an act of revenge on the person instigating the feeling of humiliation, or even others who are not involved.
Was Adam Lanza humiliated at home by his mother? Maybe. Maybe not.
"I do not want to make a conclusion without substantial evidence, but maybe there was anger towards her. Suddenly it can burst forth with this combination of things and can result in an action that is lethal," said Weinberg.
As the questions surrounding cultural faults and personal blame continue to be asked by so many of us, I cannot stop thinking about Nancy Lanza.
Her final moments were looking at the face of a monster; a monster who belonged to her, who was of her, who was her own. We only have speculation. And we will never get her side of the story.
Where shall we assign responsibility when a mother raises the boy who grows to kill her? And what if the responsibility is hinged on the mother? Does she deserve our scorn or our prayers? My vote is for prayers.
The Left continues looking for a sane target with it's lame finger pointing in their relentless effort to include guns in the topic. It's time to analyze the analyzer' true agenda.
Analysis: Was Nancy Lanza a monster, or just the mother of one?
As investigations continue into the Sandy Hook massacre, Michele Weldon can't stop thinking about the killer's mother, Nancy Lanza, and if she should be blamed too.
 |
| Nancy Lanza, mother of 20-year-old killer Adam Lanza |
{WOMENSENEWS}--He shot his mother in the face in the bedroom of the home they shared. He obliterated her identity while she was in her bed wearing her pajamas in the place where she homeschooled him for the last few years of his life.
By now the world knows quite well that last Friday Nancy Lanza's 20-year-old son, Adam Lanza, shot her first before killing 20 children, six adults and himself.
As investigations continue, we learn more about the mother of the young man reviled as a monster. And it is Nancy Lanza I can't stop thinking about. Was she, as some report, a monster too?
Necessarily the world --including President Barack Obama--openly mourns the children, teachers and administrators who were brutally massacred at Sandy Hook Elementary School, as Hanukah was ending and 10 days before Christmas, in Newtown, Conn.--as do I.
Like so many of us parents, I cannot imagine the slaying of my own child in a safe classroom--or anywhere. I know we parents spend our lives striving to protect our children from every imaginable threat, from bacteria to bullies. As parents we are hard-wired to nurture, nourish, save them from any possible harm. We install hand sanitizers at the doors of schools. Yet a killer shoots his way through the door.
Certainly I am in no position to judge the difficulty of raising a child with mental illness. I am blessed with three healthy, successful sons, ages 24, 21 and 18. Though others have felt free to judge and even blame.
Yet, I ask what happens when a mother cannot save the world from her son? Or herself? And what happens if the mother herself may have contributed to the grooming of someone we see as a monster? I have no easy answers and I can't stop wondering: Are the sins of the children ever really Mom's fault?
Extreme Form of Erasure
"I wouldn't say she is a monster," said Rita Weinberg, a Chicago-area clinical psychologist for more than 60 years and professor emerita of the city's National Louis University.
Weinberg consulted at a nearby pre-school following the shootings of school children in 1988 by Laurie Dann in the northern Chicago suburbs, a rare case when a woman does the shooting and both parents were blamed. In fact, they were both sued by the pre-school children's parents and settled the final case for at least $1 million, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Lanza's shooting his mother in the face is "the most extreme kind of erasure," said Weinberg. "The face is how you know a person." It is what she called "obliteration."
Whatever happened in their home, Nancy Lanza's legacy is as the mother of a son now to be immortalized as a demon. That will not be obliterated.
Some sensational news accounts paint Nancy Lanza as a survivalist, someone who was prepping for the end of the world, stockpiling weapons and urging her sons to do target shooting, particularly after the 2009 divorce from her husband, Peter Lanza.
Other reports blatantly deny that Nancy Lanza was anything but a good mother.
"There was nothing odd and weird about her," said her friend John Tambascio, according to NBC News. "She was completely normal and tried to help her kids just like all of us would."
One friend called her "bubbly." I see from photographs that she was beautiful.
Her 24-year-old son, Ryan Lanza, who was not involved in this massacre, will forever bear the stigma of his brother's evil. But does he have to live with the notion that his own mother may own part of the blame? Or not?
It is so unnatural a notion that the concept of mothering a monster is the stuff of horror films such as "Rosemary's Baby," "Demon Seed," "The Omen," "Alien" and all their sequels and remakes.
More Young Adult Murderers
Unfortunately it is all too real. The number of parents killed by their children in the United States has been increasing since 1980, when that group accounted for 9.7 percent of all homicides, according to the FBI. In 2008, parents killed by their children rose to 13 percent of all homicides.
The FBI lists offending rates for homicides as highest among those 18-24 years old. For the period of 1980-2008, there were 43.1 violent offenders per 100,000 people in that age group. That is nearly double the rate of 22.1 murderous youth per 100,000 people in the same age range for 1985.
Worse yet, it has become more commonplace to read American news accounts of sons who kill their mothers.
Jeffrey Pyne was on trial until last week for the brutal stabbing of his mother, Ruth. The Michigan son is now awaiting the verdict in the trial of his mother's murder.
In September, a 16-year-old Bronx son was accused of killing his mother and placing her body in a plastic trash bin.
Earlier this summer, a Chicago man shot his 62-year-old mother, reportedly because she nagged him. In October, a 17-year old in Texas called 911 after killing his mother and his sisters and explained he "wasn't even really angry." In New Delhi, India, the day after the Newtown massacre, a 25-year-old man stabbed his mother.
Half of all murders committed by 19-34 year olds in the U.S. were of family members, FBI statistics show. Most of those, or 66 percent, use guns as a weapon. More than 28 percent of all victims killed from 1980-2008 were family members.
'Product of My Life's Work'
"There was no way to atone for my son's behavior," wrote Susan Klebold, the mother of Dylan Klebold, one of two killers responsible for the 1999 Columbine High School shootings. In the November 2009 issue of O magazine, she continued: "Dylan was a product of my life's work, but his final actions implied that he had never been taught the fundamentals of right and wrong."
Arlene Holmes, the mother of James Holmes, the 24-year-old Aurora, Colo., shooter who killed 12 people and injured 58 others earlier this year, has begged for privacy and expressed condolences to the victims' families, though she has stated she will stand by her son.
All sorts of influences other than mothers have been blamed for Adam Lanza's actions. Ultra violent video games, films and television shows, the lack of gun and ammunition control, the news media's habit of sensationalizing the rampages, the cutbacks in services for the mentally ill.
Is it just being labeled as different that can cause this type of action? Kathleen M. Heide, professor of criminology at the University of South Florida in Tampa, has spent decades studying parricide, or the murder of parents by children. Heide wrote in the 2011 Encyclopedia of Adolescence that humiliation is a key trigger for an act of revenge on the person instigating the feeling of humiliation, or even others who are not involved.
Was Adam Lanza humiliated at home by his mother? Maybe. Maybe not.
"I do not want to make a conclusion without substantial evidence, but maybe there was anger towards her. Suddenly it can burst forth with this combination of things and can result in an action that is lethal," said Weinberg.
As the questions surrounding cultural faults and personal blame continue to be asked by so many of us, I cannot stop thinking about Nancy Lanza.
Her final moments were looking at the face of a monster; a monster who belonged to her, who was of her, who was her own. We only have speculation. And we will never get her side of the story.
Where shall we assign responsibility when a mother raises the boy who grows to kill her? And what if the responsibility is hinged on the mother? Does she deserve our scorn or our prayers? My vote is for prayers.
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